To See the World
by pwntastical
Summary: Aiko Kazuhiko- a girl who hates snobs, fakes & phonies and know-it-all's, and most importantly, people with facades. Would that mean that she hates herself? KyoyaOC
1. Chapter 1

**To See the World**

**By: Immortalxdreams (now pwntastical 12/19)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host club- I own the story, plot and character OC. (Aiko Kazuhiko) - This is the ONLY disclaimer, please notice that!**

**Author's Note: Hello everyone! I have to say that it's great making a new story… and with a new OC- gosh, everyone these days likes to bash them (maybe less in Naruto and Ouran, but maybe in other anime fanfictions, they definitely get down to the nitty-gritty!) I have to say that if my grammar isn't good, or the OC is not to your standards (whatever they may be) - leave. It might not even be worth reviewing if you bash.**

**Please note that I only allow ****constructive**** criticism, and if anyone wants to be my beta or something please PM me… and make sure to check your email ****often ****(if you want to be my beta)! (This is if my grammar really stinks…)**

-X-

"This really is a stupid school…" Aiko mumbled.

Aiko Kazuhiko- a transfer student coming back to Ouran mumbled curses, names… just about everything!

Her parents were one of those who actually believed that money can get you anything.

… Even a way to send their daughter to a mental asylum…

Of course, this meant Ouran!

She hated it and never wanted to come back again; but her parents made her, forced her… and kept on yelling at her.

She wasn't the ideal student, she never was the Teacher's Pet, but she had excellent grades for her age- her parents just never bothered looking at her report card.

Aiko was the youngest child of four, having an older brother and two sisters. All she was there for was to stay quiet, speak when spoken to, eat when told to eat, and just be a walking, talking, living robot.

Her parents hated her… she was just the reject of the whole family- her grandparents, aunts, uncles… all despised her. They probably all wanted her to die.

… And so, that's probably why her parents sent her to Ouran.

-X-

Aiko watched her limo drive by the streets, watching the car stop and waiting for the light to indicate the car to go. Oh how she wished that she could go home!

"Kazuhiko-san, we are here," the chauffeur said.

She nodded her head and watched the chauffeur open his door and walk around the car and open her door. She walked out the door and into the school gates. She looked around at her surroundings and watched all the little prissy girls start laughing and admiring all the 'hot' boys (so to speak) and becoming into fan girls; the sight was sickening.

"Stupid girls, stupid school, stupid family…" she mumbled.

She went into the main office where she met the headmaster of the school.

They gave her schedule (with all the advanced studies), and her classroom assignments to her.

The secretary introduced her to Kyoya Ootori- the smartest and one of the most popular of his year.

Aiko sighed and followed him as Kyoya was giving her a tour of the school, mentioning all the club activities, honor classes and school news that she honestly didn't care about.

When the tour came to an end, she bowed to Kyoya, thanking him for the 'wonderful' tour and asked him where her class was. As it turns out, she was in the same class as Kyoya. She inwardly groaned.

Kyoya looked at her schedule again. _'She's in class 2-A? She must be extremely smart in order to be in my class. Let's just see how she does…_

In order to be in the top classes and in the top courses, one must take a ranking test, to see how one rank with the students, and to see if one is able to participate in certain courses and classes. Aiko had a huge urge to be one of the best, and to be the perfect student, so she took the entrance test and the ranking test- which not many students actually do.

And today, the dreaded ranking lists were coming out.

As soon as they reached the class, Kyoya opened the door and went up to the teacher.

He mentioned to the whole class there there's a new student. All the girls blushed as soon as he opened his mouth and spoke. Aiko rolled her eyes as she saw those girls grinning for 'Kyoya-sama.' It made her sick. (… not that she was jealous or anything)

She was brought back to reality when Kyoya said, "Class, I would like to welcome our new student Kazuhiko Aiko. She has transferred into Ouran from Lobelia School, and we must welcome her with open arms."

All the girls again… swooned from the minute 'Kyoya-sama' opened his mouth and spoke. Stupid fan girls, having no brain of their own…

"Ah… Eh? Oh!"

All the students laughed at her sudden expressions, Kyoya just smirked.

"Wipe that smirk off your face Ootori-san! Anyways… Ohayo gozaimasu! My name is Kazuhiko Aiko, and I have come from Lobelia School… Um… I like martial arts, fencing, painting and playing music. I hate people who seem so conceited and have a façade underneath their own skin and people who seem like they are king (or queen) of the world. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

The teacher was going to point an empty seat for Aiko to sit until a student raised his hand.

"Are you single Aiko-san?"

After that question, all the students started talking and yelling. Aiko just stood there, amazed and finding out how to answer the question while Kyoya was just standing there, smirking again.

The teacher rubbed his head, having a headache obviously and getting ready to shout, "BE QUIET!"

All the students looked over to where the teacher was, immediately sat down and became quiet.

"Kazuhiko-san," the teacher said, "if you would like to answer the question, you may, or you may sit down if you wish."

"No… it's okay, I can answer the question," Aiko said, "and by the way… I am single, is that a good thing?"

Kyoya looked over at her. Why would anyone want her? She looked like a normal girl compared to everyone else. With her straight black hair, and her big black eyes, her small nose and thin lips, she was definitely not one for makeup like all the other girls… Her thin body with absolutely nothing to "offer" made her not enticing for men; however, with her height, she might be a little bit attractive, but worth nothing.

Another student raised his hand and asked, "Kazuhiko-san, are you part of the Kazuhiko family that owns many hospitals and most of the most famous rehabilitation clinics?"

"Yes I am, I am the fourth child of the Kazuhiko family, and my father is the owner of all those companies that you have mentioned. My mother's side of the family, with she as the heir, let my father also own some factories where they import goods to the hospitals, whether new technology or medical tools. She is also one of the owners of many hotels, and other establishments," Aiko mentioned, "Does that answer your question?"

"Sensei, may I please sit down now? I feel as though I have answered enough questions."

"Yes you may Aiko, you can sit in the back by the window next to her," he pointed to the brown haired girl sitting there, "or you may sit over here," he pointed to the corner of the classroom in the way back where a boy was just sleeping."

"I would like to sit by the window sir."

"Fine by me. Now class, with the remaining time we have, I would like for you to open your textbooks to page 356…" The rest to her all blurred out.

Aiko reached out for her textbook and started fumbling her hand in the bag, trying to find her textbook without making a commotion. Unfortunately the brown haired girl saw her and began staring at her.

_'Crap! She's staring at me… exactly what I didn't want…'_

The brown haired girl slid her textbook to the middle of the two desks, where both of them were able to read the book perfectly, she put her finger showing where they were in the book, and she wanted Aiko to read along. Aiko nodded and read along with her, looking at the pages, feeling really bad that on the first day, she didn't have her textbook (or maybe she did and yet she just couldn't find it).

At the end of the teacher's lecture, he posted up a sign on the board showing the… ranking lists!

"Class, I would ask each row to stand up and look at the ranking list and to find your own name."

At that moment, everyone stood up (except for Aiko who had no idea what was going on…)

All the students rushed over to the list, and you could hear quotes like this,

"Kyoya-san is first place!"

"Ah… Kyoya-sama is in first place again… I love him so much!"

"Aw man… I didn't get in the top ten…"

"Yes! I have moved up two ranks!"

Aiko could hear it all, and she got really ticked, finally when she stood up, everyone stopped talking.

"That's her… isn't it…?"

"That evil and stupid girl, she will have to deal with the consequences…" a girl mumbled to her friends.

Aiko raised her eyebrows and wondered what the heck everyone was talking about. She walked up to the board and looked for her name, which she expected it to be at the bottom. However, it made it up to second place._ 'Second place huh? What about first…'_ She saw Kyoya's name on it, and she got mad, however, she just smiled and walked back to her desk and sat down.

She heard a girl whisper to another girl, "I feel so bad for Tamaki-sama!"

"Yeah… he made third place, thanks to that stupid new kid…"

"I heard from my father that she's a genius; and she tries to act normal by going to school… she must be some sort of freak or something…"

Aiko looked up and saw Tamaki talking to Kyoya, looking at her and whispering to him.

"Tamaki, calm down… it's not the end of the world," Kyoya mentioned.

"I know it's just that… I have always been second place, and never third! What will my father say?"

"Your father won't say anything, besides, it's not like he can yell at you for this, and she beat you fair and square."

At that moment, Tamaki looked up and saw Aiko just sitting down at her desk, doing absolutely nothing until these three girls came up to her.

"Hey genius," a girl said, "What do you think you are doing here?"

"I'm here to learn and nothing else," Aiko responded, "What I do in this school is none of your business."

"Well, hell yeah it's our business if you come along and hurt our Tamaki-sama!"

"Tamaki-sama?" Aiko inquired, "I know no 'Tamaki-sama,' let alone knowing anyone in this school."

"Tamaki-sama is the number one hottest guy in our year! He is the president of the school's Host Club, and most awesomest guy ever!"

"Ah… awesomest guy?"

"Yeah!"

Aiko smirked and rose from her chair and said,

"If he's the hottest and most 'awesomest' guy in the class, go and pamper him, tend to his needs, I don't really care."

The bell rang and she left for the next class before anyone else could.

-X-

All day long, Aiko kept on giving introductions about herself, and her likes and dislikes, and frankly, she found it so annoying! She almost wanted to make stuff up about herself, (but she couldn't due to her family.).

As she went down the halls (in her frilly yellow dress that she hated), she pasted on a sweet and yet fake smile, grinning at those who stared at her and ignored those who glared at her.

Kyoya looked at her and found that she was quite the amazing person; using his laptop, he found out that Aiko was the youngest child of four, and they she was trying to be the best for her family.

… Just like… him.

Ah, how the world works like that!

He looked at the computer screen again.

_'The youngest child of five…'_

Didn't she mention that there were four children in her family?

He looked at the computer screen again, and then was looking at her retreating figure moving down the hallway.

_'This is very interesting… very interesting!' _Kyoya thought.

-X-

As lunch approached, Kyoya and Tamaki made their way through the screaming hordes of girls following them and stalking them, and they met up with Aiko, who was just standing there and smirking at them.

She walked up to them and asked, "Need help?"

Tamaki eagerly nodded while Kyoya just didn't care.

Aiko put on a fake and smile and looked at all the girls and said, "Look over there! There's a girl with cheap makeup on!"

All the girls looked over there and saw some nerd putting on some heavy makeup, and all the girls ran over there, however, there were some other girls still stalking them. She shook her head and started thinking of random excuses to say.

She finally found one.

She walked over to one of the girls and whispered something in her ear and told them to pass it on. That girl did, and soon all the girls were whispering to one another.

Aiko put her hands together and nodded and smiled.

Tamaki and Kyoya just stared at her and she looked and them and started to move her eyes and tilt her head towards the direction of the cafeteria. Kyoya understood what she meant and Tamaki apparently didn't; so Kyoya just dragged Tamaki along, not making a single sound.

All the girls finally turned around in Aiko's direction, and looked at her.

They all said in unison, "Is it really true?"

She nodded her head and all the girls wanted to turn back to Tamaki and Kyoya, who apparently just happened to slip their minds.

They were gone.

All the girls sighed and walked away to where they needed to go.

However, when one of the girls left, she dropped a letter.

Aiko picked it up- it wasn't a letter, it was an invitation… to a…

'Host club? What the heck is a…' She read it again.

'A… host… club…'

Smirking, she walked to the cafeteria, trashing the card in the trash bin, but thinking about it, she just kept it in her pocket.

-X-

"Lunch meal A please," Tamaki asked.

"I will have the same," Kyoya stated.

They both received their meals and walked towards the seating area, where all the girls stared at them; especially Tamaki.

"I wonder what Aiko-san said when all the girls were stalking us," Tamaki asked.

"I wouldn't know, would I," Kyoya said in his own sarcastic manner. Tamaki just shook it off and put on a smile.

He saw Aiko sitting down by herself without any meal, just a bottle of water.

Tamaki immediately sat down to her right and Kyoya to her left.

Aiko looked over at the both of them and asked, "What do you want?"

She looked over at Kyoya who was silently eating, and then she looked at Tamaki who was staring at her.

"I said… What do you want?" Aiko asked again.

"Nothing," Tamaki answered, "As being the leader of the Host Club, it is my job to let no young woman sit alone with no comfort from the opposite gender or without friends."

"Yeah…" Aiko remarked, looking extremely uncertain and wanted to get out of her seat and walk away, but she maintained her cool and just sat down listening to Tamaki's remarks of 'leaving no woman alone.' (Whatever that meant…)

"Listen, I don't want any friends," Aiko stated, ruining Tamaki's fantasy of Aiko and Tamaki running in a field of flowers together…

"All I want is to be alone, and get away from me… I mean it!" she shouted, and she even got Kyoya's attention. She stood up from her chair and walked away.

-X-

Aiko reached the gardens, where all the flowers and the greenhouses were. She looked at all the flowers and began touching the petals of a daffodil.

"It's so pretty," she whispered, "Unlike me…"

"What makes you think that?" A voice said.

"Who's there? Who is it?" She let go of the daffodil and tried to pinpoint where the voice came from.

All of sudden, Kyoya appeared.

"Oh… what are you doing here?" she asked.

"You upset my friend, and you just ran, I think that's probably the worst decision you have ever made."

"Talk to the hand, see if I care- just because everyone says he's cool and 'awesome' doesn't mean that I have to think like those stupid fan girls at school."

"You should, it depends on your reputation."

"What reputation? For all I know, he should hate me, as should everyone else. I ruined his little 'second place ranking,' so now he has to deal with third place in the ranking list of 2-A this year. I heard him cry and ask why I took his slot, and all the girls yelled at me since I'm so 'smart,' all of his girls defend him, and he doesn't need you to help him either," she retorted.

"Besides, he can help himself; don't spoil him that much," she added.

"I'm his friend," Kyoya remarked, "I have the right to help him in times of need."

"Kyoya Ootori… what an enigma… I heard from others that you would do anything to become the heir; you would use people and your connections and even rebel against others… I even heard that you would do anything to be the leader, even kill."

As she emphasized the word 'kill,' Kyoya looked up at her and stared straight into her eyes.

"And you dear Kazuhiko-san, telling others that your family consists of three children, aren't you forgetting another family member?"

"That's none of your business," she seethed, "Leave my family and their affairs alone."

"Then you must leave my family issues alone as well," he retorted.

"Fine… see if I really care," she said, "I'm telling the truth… right?

Before Kyoya was going to say anything, she ran away from the greenhouses, away from this place and most importantly, away from him.

"I hate this place, I hate all the students, and most importantly, I hate Kyoya Ootori!" Aiko whispered to herself.

-X-

Kyoya walked back to Tamaki and shrugged his shoulders.

"I didn't get anything out of her… sorry."

Tamaki only stared at him and smiled.

"I didn't expect you to investigate and interrogate, all I wondered is what she said about me."

Kyoya only started walking back to the classroom, and Tamaki following him.

-X-

When they reached their homeroom, they saw a handmade card with beautiful and neat handwriting, addressed to Tamaki Suoh.

_To Tamaki-san,_

_I'm terribly sorry for causing your best friend such grief at the greenhouse. Please express my apologies to him._

_If you want to know what I said about you, it would be best if you looked in front of a mirror, especially near where your nose is._

_Tamaki didn't understand what that meant and asked for a mirror. Kyoya didn't have one, but he ended up finding ten girls asking Tamaki to use their mirrors. He picked one up from a random girl and saw that he had a small blemish on his nose._

Wait, that wasn't a small blemish.

It was a zit.

He screamed.

_-X-_

**Well, there's my introduction chapter! It's not that good as I expected it to be, but please read and review nonetheless. I know that it's supposed to have some drama, but I wanted to make this chapter lighthearted and somewhat funny before we get into the nitty-gritty. I do hope that you like this and please also note that my character may seem like a Mary-Sue (I hope not, I tried hard), but if it seems like that to you, just wait until the later chapters! Please also know that this is a KyoyaOC story… nothing else and nothing more! **

**See that floaty thing on the bottom of the page.**

**Click it: I dare you to.**

**-IxD**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Tamaki always kept on touching his nose; he was so worried about that small blemish on his nose that all the girls thought that it was so 'adorable' and 'kawaii!'

Aiko finally came into the class and smirked- he finally got the message.

She walked over, pushing any girls out of the way; and when the girls saw her, they immediately left. All the girls hated her and didn't even want to be next to her. (But the most important thing was that Aiko really didn't care.)

Aiko reached into her bag, which was slung over her shoulder and found a small beige colored tin. She passed it down to him.

"Hey… Catch!"

Tamaki caught it with ease, he then read the tin.

"Is this stuff supposed to…" he read the tin again.

"Look, if you want to cover up that 'blemish' of yours, just put it on… it will conceal it for your stupid Host Club thing. You don't want to flirt with girls with something like _that_ near your nose." Aiko interrupted.

Kyoya looked at her, her eyes looking straight at him, being totally serious about this, and Tamaki with stars in his eyes, actually believing that she's finally being a true friend.

"Well then Aiko-san," he remarked looking down at the desk, and when he finally looked up, "for thanking you for this makeup, I invite you to the Host Club!!"

Aiko looked up at him- was he serious about this?

"No thanks."

"But Aiko-_chan_…" He began to pout like a little kid, having those anime tears streaming down his eyes.

Aiko heard the little _–chan_ suffix to her name, and she didn't like it.

"Don't call me Aiko-chan."

"Why?? It sounds very nice and kawaii with your name!"

"No."

"YES!!"

"No… stop all this foolishness… NOW!!" Aiko exclaimed.

At that moment, all the girls had that look that said 'I want to kill you, but Tamaki-sama and Kyoya-sama are there…' Aiko smirked at that.

"Well, it seems that I have to go," she pointed at the girls still glaring at her, "but it was nice talking to you… both."

"Wait Aiko-chan!!"

She twitched at the suffix that Tamaki ended up placing after her name.

"What?" she asked in a stern tone.

"Will you come to the Host Club?"

"We'll see… we'll see… Tamaki_-kun._"

Tamaki blushed at the suffix, while all the girls who heard it pinned her down with their stares, Aiko grinned at that. She went to her seat just as the teacher came in.

And all she had to was to last this last class, pack up and finally leave.

Once the teacher gave them the homework (which ended up being some reading and a summary of the chapter), the bell rang.

Aiko and a few others were the only ones leaving the classroom.

The others (meaning the whole girl population except Aiko) were hounding down Tamaki and Kyoya. She shook her head and left.

However, just before she went out the door, the teacher came to her and told her to report to the Headmaster's office. She nodded and left.

'_What could the Headmaster want with me?'_

Kyoya looked at Aiko's retreating figure, walking in the opposite direction as everyone else was going.

'_Where is she going?'_ Kyoya thought.

When he came back into reality, he found all these swarming girls. Before he was going to figure out where Aiko was going, he had to first get out of this situation.

-X-

**(Aiko POV)**

'_I don't understand… what would the headmaster want with me?' _

'_I still don't understand; did I do something wrong? I heard from my father that Tamaki-san is the son of the superintendent of the school. I guess from that warning, I must be careful.'  
_

'_I'm always nervous when I meet superior figures, like a headmaster or even at times at teacher… what's the purpose of this visit? I don't think I did anything wrong… I have to stop being nervous and just keep on walking.'_

'_It's not like he really wants me… I'm not important enough.' _

**(Regular POV)**

As she reached the office, she gently knocked on the doors. She heard a vague voice- a woman's voice telling her to come in. She hesitantly opened the door.

"Uh… Hello, my name is Kazuhiko Aiko… I heard that I was called to the Headmaster's Office?"

The woman looked up at her, still shuffling her papers around in her hands.

"Oh!"

Aiko looked at the woman, who is a bit scatterbrained at the moment and sweat dropped.

"Ah… Kazuhiko-san, the Headmaster wants to see you now!"

Aiko nodded and walked into his office.

"Um… Hello Sir, I'm Kazuhiko Aiko, and I was called to your office?"

The man looked at her and after a moment, he finally spoke.

"Yes, I have called you in here to talk about your extracurricular activities. You see, each student in Ouran is called to be well-rounded, and must do at least one extracurricular activity. Here's a little pamphlet with the list of all the clubs and activities here at Ouran."

He handed her a packet, and she accepted it.

"Sir, do you mind if I take a look right now?"

"Oh no, please take a look; in fact, I would like for you to make a decision now."

"Now?"

"Well, today you may take a look at some of the clubs you would like to join, and you may find the right one for you!"

She nodded and took a look at the packet.

There was so many clubs- even the 'Black Magic Club.' She smirked at the sight of that.

And there, in the category of 'Male Clubs and Activities,' came the club called the Host Club.

Host Club?

"Why yes Kazuhiko-san, the Host Club is for males only; but many girls always go there, they have so many female customers! Are you interested in visiting there?"

When she heard his response, and when she finally realized that she said it out loud, she covered her mouth with her free hand that wasn't holding the pamphlet.

The Headmaster laughed and smiled at her.

'_She's quite a girl isn't she? Timid yet strong in her own way… what a catch for any young man! Perhaps I should tell Suoh-san about her; perhaps Tamaki-san could be interested…'_

While thinking about Aiko and her talents and abilities, Aiko interrupted his thoughts by asking:

"Does the Music Club need any more members? I realize that it might be a bit late for auditions. In that case, I might join the Multicultural Club or perhaps the Martial Arts Club. Ooh… there's a Fencing Club?"

Her eyes were wide open, seeing all the clubs that she wanted to see and check out. She looked excited as a four year old opening a giant present.

The Headmaster stood up and brought her to where the Music Club was, and as Aiko peered through the door, she saw all the musical instruments and all the musicians turning their instruments and practicing some small pieces and scales.

"Students! We have a new transfer student from Lobelia, and she turns out to have a talent for music. Please welcome her kindly."

There was an ominous silence, and Aiko took a few steps down the hallway, getting closer and closer to the stage, where everyone else was.

Rika Watanabe, a third year and the head of the club walked up to her, and Aiko bowed down to her.

Rika smiled.

"Nice to meet you Kazuhiko-san."

"Nice to meet you too."

All the club members were staring at her, and she felt like the stage lights were probably on her, pinpointing in her general direction as well.

While Aiko was daydreaming about everyone staring at her, Rika asked:

"So… What instruments do you play?"

"Um… I play… Violin, viola, cello, flute and piano."

Rika looked at her and nodded.

"You do know that if you want to be in the club, you have to go through a long audition… right?"

"Yes, I do… however; I don't have any instruments with me now."

"That's fine, that's fine," she shook her head. "We have plenty of instruments that you can use for the auditions."

"Ah… arigato."

"No problem. Now, which instrument would you like to audition first?"

"First?"

"Well… I'm sure that you would like to audition **all** of your instruments… right?"

"Uh… Yes."

"So here's how the auditions go, we will ask you to play a piece, a piece that you already know of, something difficult so we know of your technique and style and how professional you can be. Then we will give you a small passage to play to test your sight reading, and finally, you can play some scales and sorts."

"I'll start with the violin first please."

-X-

As the auditions went by, she kept on playing instrument by instrument, playing different scores and songs off the top of her head. She, quite frankly found the auditions quite easy, but all she needed to hear was the yes or no saying she could actually be a part of the club.

"Kazuhiko-san?"

"Yes?"

"We were thinking," Rika said, "that you could participate in **all** of your instruments… you see, some pieces may require more cellos or flutes or maybe some piano, so we can fit you in… however, we see that since you play your string instruments very well, we can put you in for a permanent slot there."

"Which instrument though Watanabe-senpai?"

"Either viola or cello- we unfortunately have too many violins, and that would have been another choice."

"I'll play the viola then."

"Uh… let's see… Aiko Kazuhiko, viola!" She started writing down on her notepad.

She started shuffling through some scores.

"Here, take a look at this; we will be performing in a competition in about three weeks or so, and we would like you to participate." She handed Aiko a viola score that was about ten or so pages.

"We have confidence in you that you will do very well; after all, your sight reading is very good!"

Aiko nodded and started looking through the score.

"Oh… and here! Here is the schedule and the place where we will have meetings and practices, and right here," she starred with her pencil, "is where we will be meeting for the competition. Also, here's a list with all the names of the people in the music club as well as for the Ouran High School Music Orchestra!"

"Music Orchestra… I thought that these were auditions just to be **in** the music club!" Aiko said.

"Nope! You see, while you were looking around in the auditorium checking things out, the Headmaster came to me and asked for you to audition, even seeing how late it is for auditions at this time… so that's why you are now officially in the orchestra!"

"Oh…" Aiko said, figuring out that when she was 'checking out the auditorium,' she was actually daydreaming.

"Please be here next Monday, as we meet about three days a week- please come at around 4:00."

"Why so late?"

"Some of the girls here go to the Host Club and don't come back till pretty late, so we have to make the practices start a bit later and end a bit late as well. If you don't have anything to do, just come and practice here for fun."

"Oh… alright then."

"Please make sure that you come into the **second** music room." Rika said, emphasizing on the word 'second.'

"Hai!"

"Nice to meet you Kazuhiko-san."

"Nice to meet you too Watanabe-senpai."

"Please don't call me Watanabe-senpai, Rika-senpai will do! Watanabe makes me feel pretty old then…"

"Alright Rika-senpai…"

Aiko put the scores carefully into her bags and left the room.

She went outside and looked around the hallway.

There was nothing, nada, zilch, zip.

No noise no sounds… where was everyone?

"Hmm…"

She walked down the hallway only to find Kyoya Ootori walking back to the Host Club.

He looked extremely serious, walking down and reading from a clipboard and recording data and info about the club's profits. (But Aiko didn't know about that)

He entered into one of the music rooms and shut the door, the minute he opened the door, there was many sounds of people moving around and a lot of girls… screaming?

What was Kyoya Ootori doing?

-X-

As Aiko checked out the rest of the clubs, finding out that some of their schedules clashed with the orchestra, Aiko ended up being part of the following clubs:

Aiko Kazuhiko:

**Ouran High School Orchestra: Viola**

**Fencing Club: Major weapon: Foil, secondary: Sabre**

**Member of the Martial Arts Club/Kendo Club**

**Member of the Art Club**

**Member of the Multicultural Club**

'_That's enough for him to finally notice me… I hope.' _

Author's Note: Sorry for the long update. You see, I was kind of expecting more reviews, so this time I shall say: **no updating until I get about 3-5 reviews… please!!** (With a cherry on top)- But either way, I would probably still update… since I love this story way too much (so far). I have been so busy with school, exams, finals and graduation parties (for my cousins) and everything else in between; plus with some weird computer curfew and schedule time, I rarely get the computer (except on weekends). But I shall update!

Who do you think Aiko is referring to as "him?" We shall see… Dun dun dun…

(Sorry for the small cliffhanger too!)

Please review!

-Immortal.

**Next chapter: Meet the Host Club!! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Are you proud of me yet?"

"Hmph, what's there to be proud of?"

"Father… I intend on participating and joining in more clubs and to get more credits and qualifications than the rest of my siblings."

"So what's there to be proud of?"

"… I want you… to be proud of me."

"Ha! And what makes you think I should be proud of you? You aren't beautiful like your sisters or athletic like your brothers… Nor are you smart like any of them."

"But Father… I have some talent and worth… right?"

"No. Now get out of here!"

She left.

-x-

It was a competition.

The whole Kazuhiko family always intended on having more than one child, in the case if one dies or 'disappears,' there's always another one. It had always been like that for a long time.

So whoever survived had to go through this never-ending competition of who would be the heir.

No one knew how that felt, to see your older or younger siblings as… as…

Rivals.

No one could understand the pain of trying to please others in a sickly sweet way; baiting them to do something, putting on this façade in front of others.

No, no one could ever understand that.

Except for one person.

Kyoya Ootori.

-x-

"Have you seen him yet?"

"Yes… I have."

"What do you think?"

"He's… alright."

"Has he noticed you yet?"

"Yes… I believe so."

"Just keep on doing what you are doing and then** maybe** I could consider you and deem you worthy."

"Yes father."

"Now go! I need to talk to speak with Shizuo…"

"Hai, arigato father."

And she left again.

-x-

'_Father will notice me if I catch his attention…He probably will be used for some financial plot, to try to get him to associate with our family. It's disgusting how these financial groups do these kinds of things- it's like a chessboard; you win some, you lose some and then there are always the sacrifices…'_

She sighed and started walking down the hallway to her room.

She looked at her two older sisters Fuyuko and Itsuko were- laughing and having fun.

They didn't have to worry, they were tall and pretty… not to mention very athletic. They were always competitive, but they never showed that side to anyone else.

It was a farce.

There wasn't anyone who wouldn't jump for the chance to be the heir or heiress of the companies their father owned.

The Kazuhiko family never had a conscience. They never regretted anything they did, because everything they did had a purpose, they always thought three moves ahead, making sure that they had backup plans and thought about everything.

It was a chessboard and Aiko was a pawn.

-x-

Kyoya Ootori looked and shuffled through some papers.

"Hmm…"

"Kyoya-san…" a servant mumbled.

"Hai?"

"There's someone at the door for you… It's Tamaki-sama."

"Oh… let him in."

"Hai." She bowed and left.

Two seconds later…

"KYOYA!!! MOMMY!!!"

Kyoya sighed and rubbed his head.

"What do you want this time?"

"I want to know if you will go to a…" he stopped there, "a… commoners'…" he stopped again, "MALL!!!"

Kyoya sighed and rubbed his head again.

"I don't have the time for this now- go ask Hikaru and Kaoru or someone else; stop bothering me, I have other things to do."

"Fine… but would you like me to buy you a souven -"

"NO!" And Tamaki left and shut the door, running out as fast as he could.

Kyoya took a sip of his hot tea which was left on his desk.

He looked through the papers again.

"Kazuhiko… Kentaro…" He ruffled through them again.

"Interesting…"

He looked forward to this.

-x-

Aiko yawned as she walked out of the girls' locker room and went to her next class.

She patted down her dress and straightened the ruffles before going into her history class. She always made it a point to look neat and to come early.

She looked at the clock and then at her schedule.

She had time- a lot of time.

At that moment, Kyoya Ootori walked in and sat down in a seat near Aiko's.

"Ohayo Ootori-san…" Aiko said, not giving direct eye contact as she was turning the page of the book, trying not to look at him.

"Hn." He started typing some notes on his laptop, and doing some research.

"So… how are you?"

"Fine and you?"

"Oh… just great."

"That's nice."

"So… do you know when class starts?"

"Oh… some fifteen minutes from now or so."

"That's nice," trying to mock Kyoya, who wasn't exactly paying attention. "I hope that you had a wonderful weekend."

"It was… nice."

"Surely Ootori-san, you could use some other adjectives instead of "nice…" it lacks substance. When someone says that something is "nice," she made air quotes with her fingers, "It ends up being so broad that the person always has to guess…. I on the other hand prefer someone who can get straight to the point." She ended with that and turned the page.

"Hn."

"Well Ootori-san… have you learned anything from this?"

"Yes."

"And what would that be?"

"You talk too much."

"Thank you Ootori-san, I consider that a compliment."

"You're welcome in that case. However, I don't think that many girls would consider that to be a compliment."

"Well then… I prefer life to be in a positive light, so I try to make things positive."

She was lying through her teeth. Aiko hated positive people, people like Tamaki, who always pretended that everyday was a happy day… it was disgusting.

Happy people must be people who are high.

And it never ends.

She had hoped that Kyoya would actually engage in some sort or form of conversation, but since he was so absorbed in his work, he didn't pay any attention.

So all she had to do was to keep on talking… to see if he actually paid attention.

"So… Ootori-san… do you know what today is?"

"Today is a Monday."

'_Good start, it's better than one word or even worse; one syllable 'sentences.''_

"Do you think that it's sunny out today?"

"Yes."

'_I should have known…'_

"So… do you think that we will have a pop quiz today in history?"

"No, I do not think so."

'_Better…'_

"If we did, let's consider the possibility… then what pages or what chapter would they be on?"

"Probably from pages 99-107, or maybe some brief information on the new chapter."

'_Getting better… now let's move the conversation in a better topic…'_

"So… what do you do after school?"

"I am the vice president of the Host Club."

'_He is?? I don't really think that his father would approve of __**that…**__ would he?'_

"Is it fun??"

"What do you mean exactly?" he said, still looking at the computer.

"I mean… all you men do is charm girls with your physical 'attractiveness' and with your words, how about **real** love… something with substance in it?? You may attract girls, but if they ever asked you out, would you reject them or accept them and be in a relationship? All you men do are to hook girls and then the next day hook some more. Is it about the girls themselves, their bodies or their 'stupid-ness,' or maybe it's just for the money?"

Kyoya looked up from the computer and saw a smirking Aiko looking directly straight at him.

"So… can you answer that Ootori-san?"

"Yes. I can actually. The Host Club is bent on charming girls _while_ making money. We do both. The more girls equal more profit. We can make more money so then we can have more theme days and the annual balls that we hold. We don't care about their bodies, and we don't do anything an honorable gentleman wouldn't do. Whatever the girls want, we would do."

'_Very good Kyoya!! Someone can actually speak in full sentences!'_

"Well…. It seems that there's still the money concept involved… and what would your definition of "honorable" be? And "whatever the girls want…" if that included being in bed with them, would you do that? And what about love? What is your real definition about love?"

Kyoya looked at her and she smirked again.

'_Hook, line… and sinker. I am truly getting better at this.'_

"Well Kazuhiko-san, I would have to say…"

He got cut off by a tall blond man hugging him.

"MOMMY!!! How are you today?"

Kyoya grimaced and looked at him.

"Get. Off. Me. NOW," he said, with increasing infuriation.

"Hai… don't get so mad!" Tamaki stated.

"Ah… Tamaki-san… good morning," Aiko said, returning back to her book.

"Ohayo Aiko-chan!!" He didn't notice that said "Aiko-chan" was grimacing at her new name and Kyoya was smirking at her.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here." Aiko said, gritting her teeth together, trying to restrain her anger at Tamaki (especially since she was in front of Kyoya).

"Well… I decided to come and visit… MOMMY!!!"

"Eh? Who's "Mommy?""

Tamaki grinned and pointed at Kyoya. At this time, there were lights with arrows and flashy lights all pointing to Kyoya while Tamaki was smiling.

"Get. Off. Me. NOW." Kyoya said, obviously getting even madder by the minute.

"Hai… Hai… no need to get so mad at me… Mommy." He giggled and left.

Kyoya sighed and rubbed his head. He seemed to be doing this a lot every time Tamaki always showed up.

On the table, there was a souvenir that said on a sticky note: To Kyoya.

He opened the wrinkled wrapped gift (which Tamaki must have attempted to wrap it, destroyed the paper and then begged Haruhi to wrap it for him), and saw a little snow globe.

It had a bunny in it that looked like it was dancing.

'_Great… so I get a snow globe with a bunny on it. Way to be mature Tamaki…'_

Aiko looked at the gift and started smirking…. Trying to suppress her laughter.

"_HA HA HA!!! He got a stupid bunny rabbit snow globe… from Tamaki!!"_

"Aw… Isn't that so cute Ootori-san, you got a gift from your boyfriend!"

She was responded with silence.

-x-

'_Where's a good place I can practice??'_

Classes were over and she headed for the music rooms, where Rika said that all orchestra members could practice.

'_Which room was it in?? I can't remember…second… or third?'_

She walked into the third room, thinking that it would be empty.

Two words: BIG. MISTAKE.

"AHHHHHH!!!"

She fell on her bottom, and her viola case went flying.

Mori caught it just in time and put it on the couch.

Rose petals were flying all over the place and then a stunning display of handsome men came upon her.

"Welcome my dear to the… OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB! I am Tamaki and these are…"

"Yeah yeah, save the intros for later Tamaki-san."

He was let down and went to his corner where he was harvesting his mushrooms.

Aiko looked for her viola case and found it on the couch, where she found a tall quiet man and a short and sweet boy… or man sitting on the couch. The little boy was on the tall man's lap.

"Hello!! Would you like to eat some cake with me?"

"Oh… no thank you, I don't really like cake."

The little boy looked sad and asked, "How about some strawberries?"

Aiko felt bad and said, "Sure, I'll have a couple strawberries."

"YAY!!! MORI!!! CAN YOU GET THE STRAWBERRIES!!???"

Said "Mori" stood up and went towards the dessert table and got a bowl of strawberries.

"Ano… we never told you our names… My name is Mitsukuni, but you can call me Honey!! And he's Takashi, but you can call him Mori."

"Ah… my name is Kazuhiko Aiko, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Aiko is such a kawaii name…. and Ai-chan is so kawaii as well!!"

Aiko twitched at her new name… _'Ai-chan??? He's just as bad as Tamaki…'_

"Why thank you very much Honey-san."

"Aren't these strawberries so red?? And they're so sweet too!! Takashi, eat a strawberry!!"

Mori picked one up and ate it. He nodded his head.

While Honey and Mori were spending some time together, Aiko picked up her viola case and started walking out. The minute she opened the door.

She was greeting by tons of frantic girls running, shouting, "Tamaki-sama!!" Honey-senpai!!" "Hikaru and Kaoru!!!!"

And even… "Kyoya!!"

It was disgusting.

How could girls be so… stupid??

These 'men' are nothing more than immature boys who seek juvenile love.

'_How can Kyoya manage this "business" of sorts… it's absolutely…'_

Her thoughts were disturbed by an arm blocking one of the doors.

"Going somewhere Miss?"

-x-

**Author's Note: My apologies for not updating soon enough!**

**I haven't gotten the reviews I wanted, and my computer broke down and everything. ******** Please review and enjoy this story, and I apologize for the cliffhanger as well, but this thing (including the Author's note) is 10 pages on Word. **

**So please read, enjoy and review!!! (Or put some updatey thingy that the website has.) ^_^**

***Please note that if there are editing problems, this chapter has not been completely edited yet, so when I have the time, I shall revise and check it over. This chapter is here for the readers of this story, and since I wanted to get this out quickly, the editing is not exactly done yet. Sorry! (but please still enjoy!)  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**No reviews?**

**That's fine… but please review… but I did get a lot of update alarm things!! ^_^**

**Please review as well. That's all I ask .**

**Now on with the chapter!!**

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World…**_

_It was disgusting._

_How could girls be so… stupid??_

_These 'men' are nothing more than immature boys who seek juvenile love. _

'_How can Kyoya manage this "business" of sorts… it's absolutely…'_

_Her thoughts were disturbed by an arm blocking one of the doors._

"_Going somewhere Miss?"_

-x-

"Yes, I am going somewhere. Somewhere outside of this room where I can not see any stupid girls falling for stupid men."

She looked back and saw Honey and Mori with a bunch of girls eating cake with them.

And then she saw THAT.

"What. Is. That?" Aiko pointed at Hikaru and Kaoru who were currently embracing each other and kissing on the cheek.

"That would be the Hitachiins' 'Brotherly Love' act… they do it all the time. That's what attracts girls to them."

"That's disgusting and degrading to a noble family name! Ootori-san, you actually agree with this?"

"Oh let me guess…" she did air quotes and said, "whatever makes money for the club, even if it's… Brotherly Love…"

"Yes, that's right Kazuhiko-san… whatever is good for the club."

"That's absolutely repulsive. Good day Ootori-san."

She left, having the door shut extremely loudly, causing a moment of silence.

"Please continue," Kyoya said, "ignore her."

And the hubbub started again.

'_She's probably the only other girl (except for Haruhi) who isn't interested… but with these profits, who needs her...'_

-x-

"…Absolutely disgusting and degrading men!" Aiko whispered to herself.

"What kind of a stupid girl would go to these things… oh that's right… stupid girls."

She entered the second music room and began to tune her viola.

'_It's so out of tune… it must have happened after it almost fell…'_

She fixed it and started with some warm-ups.

'_Some viola will calm my mind…but why is my mind plagued with these kinds of things? I shouldn't even be caring about Ootori… he's just… he's just…'_

And somehow, the infamous Kazuhiko Aiko could not find words to label him.

'…'

She continued playing.

-x-

"Ano… Kyoya…"

"Kyoya…"

"Mommy…"

Tamaki started calling for Kyoya, and Kyoya was getting really annoyed.

Maybe the rest of the Host Club had telepathy or something, or they could tell by those red fumes coming out of Kyoya's head…

"Momm-"

"Stop. Calling. Me. Mommy." Kyoya said through gritted teeth.

"But isn't it so cute??!!"

"No."

And thus, Tamaki went to his corner in solitude.

"Kyoya-san," Haruhi said, "who was that girl with the instrument case?"

"That was Kazuhiko Aiko, in class 2-A… or more specifically, my class. She plays many instruments and speaks four fluent languages, Japanese, Chinese, English and French. She's rather accomplished, but unfortunately, it seems that she's not pretty enough to even go out with other men."

"Um Kyoya," the twins said in unison, "we don't think you should have said that."

Kyoya looked at the door where there was a trembling Aiko with cold eyes staring at him.

"Would you please leave? Hosting hours are-"

She slammed the door and left.

-x-

'_How could he say those things? I can definitely date a rich entrepreneur if I wanted to… Couldn't I? How does he know these things about me… what a stalker.'_

Aiko ran outside only to see her car outside the gate, and someone in there.

'_Who's that?'_

"Excuse me…"

"Hello Aiko-chan!! I hope you don't mind me using your car for a bit," Itsuko asked, "but I need to go shopping, and since tou-sama is getting me a new car, I have to use yours…"

"Wait… Onee-san… You can't do that!"

"Sorry! Gotta go!"

And like that, the car whizzed by her, heading in the opposite direction to the mall.

'_Great…Do I wait for her to come back (that's stupid), or do I walk back home (that's even more stupid!) How could she be this idiotic? Someone like her definitely cannot be the heir…and yet, she's still in the race. Stupid Daddy's girl… stupid pretty girl…stupid…'_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a certain male's voice.

"No ride?"

She turned around to see Kyoya Ootori.

'_Is he… making fun of me?'_

"No, I'm perfectly fine."

"That's not the way I see it."

"Well who cares the 'way you see it?' You think that I'm some stupid ugly girl who can't do much."

"Who said that?"

"You did… stop fooling me."

"Oh really now? And here I thought that I would be nice to offer you a ride back home."

"You? There's no way that I would ever get in a car with you. I would rather let hell freeze over and even then I still wouldn't get in the car."

"Well then, suit yourself."

Kyoya got into the car and shut the door. He opened the car window and looked at her.

"Are you sure? You know, I never really would offer this chance to any other girl, let alone anyone else."

"No, I'm sure."

Aiko walked off towards the direction of where she thought her home was.

"Driver… Go and follow that girl."

-x-

"Stupid Kyoya… bragging and everything, what does he know about me?"

She stopped and froze.

'_What does he really know about me? Does he know everything about me and my family? Ootori Yoshio is extremely powerful, and with the Suohs on their side, they are practically the most powerful business in Japan.'_

She looked up and then looked at her watch.

"5: 15… just great."

She continued walking until she saw a boy with the Ouran uniform at a… supermarket?

"Uh… Ano… Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

"Do you go to Ouran High School?"

"Hai… you must be Aiko-san!"

'_How did he know?'_

"Hai… and what's your name?"

"Haruhi."

"Ah! You're that boy from the Host Club!"

Haruhi nodded, and stuck out 'his' hand.

"Would you like to finish shopping with me?"

She nodded.

'_Sure why not? It's not like I have anything else to do…'_

Kyoya looked though the car window.

'_What is she doing?'_

It looked like he would have to be waiting for awhile.

-x-

"Aiko-san," Haruhi asked, "would you wait for a second? I have to go to the bathrooms."

"Hai."

Aiko stood at a corner and watched Haruhi's retreating figure.

And then she went to the women's room.

'_Why is he going to the women's room… unless he is really a sh-'_

She turned around and her thoughts were interrupted by a tall spectacled man.

"Ootori-san… what are you doing here?" she inquired.

"I'm here to take you home."

"Stop following me," she commanded, "can't you see that I'm already doing something else? I'm not your dog, and I don't need to stay with you at all times…"

Unluckily enough, her back was against the wall, and Kyoya's body was in front of her, leaving her no way to pass through.

'_Oh my god.'_

"Excuse me Ootori-san, but I have to get going."

"Who said that you weren't my dog?"

"Stop playing with my mind. You're playing tricks on my head, and I'm not falling for them."

"I don't want you to fall for them… I want you to fall for me."

At that moment, Aiko's eyes opened up wide in shock, and quickly stopped looking at him.

"Stop playing that Host-like quality on me. We're not at school and nor are we at your stupid club. Try to be more civilized since you are an Ootori… your brothers must be more civilized and cultured than you. Yoshio-sama must have really neglected you when you were a child…"

Kyoya's face turned from a smirk to a grimace.

"And who told you about that?"

"I don't know anything about you and your family, but I know facts, and unlike some other people, I know how to put two and two together; so try acting like an Ootori so you actually have some slim chance actually being the heir! How would your father feel if you were flirting and being around girls who are not in your league?"

"Who said anything about league?"

"What about that Haruhi person. She's a commoner who made it onto the scholarship program."

"Excuse me, but Haruhi is a male."

"Oh really now? I just saw her walking into the ladies' room, if my eyes are not mistaken. Plus, her mannerism isn't like a regular man, for all I know, he could be gay… but what's the chance of that? I know that you and others of your little group like her, and I wonder if your father even agreed about her…"

"Stop."

"Stop what Ootori-san? Are you scared that people might actually know a miniscule bit of background information on you? What about all those others that you pinpointed and found information about? Don't you think that they get scared of you knowing their entire lives? I expected you to be one who didn't care about people's emotions, but you're more than that. You're a jerk, and you will never **ever** be in your father's favor, and I'll make sure of that."

She walked away, dropping the basket that Haruhi gave her on his feet and left.

"Good day Ootori-san."

She walked away from the store, not turning back.

When Haruhi came back, she saw not Aiko with the basket, but Kyoya.

"Do you need a ride home Haruhi?"

-x-

When Aiko finally got home (she called for a car), it was nearly 6:00 and for some reason, she was extremely tired.

"All that walking," she mumbled, "I have no idea how I'm going to survive if Onee-san does it again…"

She walked to her room and fell onto her bed.

"I am so tired…"

A maid knocked on her door.

"Come in!" she said in a sweet tone

"Aiko-sama, you need to take your medicine, you were supposed to take it about an hour ago, but you weren't at home."

"Hai… do you mind bringing it here please?"

"Hai Aiko-sama." And with that, the maid went to get the medicine.

'_Stupid Ootori! If he wasn't playing games in my head, I would have gotten home much sooner and I would have probably accepted his offer to drive me home. But no!! I just had to be stupid and not keep my mouth shut... what a bad habit of mine.'_

"Aiko-sama… here's your medicine!"

"Ah thank you!"

She stood up and looked at the contents on the tray.

'_Looks like the same medicine, no extra powder, and the maid is from my own personal staff, and the water doesn't look poisoned.'_ She took a sniff. _'No problem there.'_

It was extremely normal to be cautious of what the maids could give you. Someone could have slipped some poison, some powder, another drug… it was extremely common and predictable at times.

She took the pill and nodded, telling the maid to leave. After the maid left, she took a bottle of her own water and took the pill.

'_You can never be too careful with the maids as well…they show support to one sibling, but serve to another…'_

The world was full of deceptions and deceptive people… and Aiko ended up being stuck in a house full of them.

**-x-**

**Sorry for the late update!!**

**Have a Happy Christmas, and please review! ^_^**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

**Kudos to Draycos and Angelhost19 for reviewing!**

**I'll try updating more now because of vacation, and then when school starts… it'll probably be slower with the updating. Sorry!! :[**

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World:**_

_It was extremely normal to be cautious of what the maids could give you. Someone could have slipped some poison, some powder, another drug… it was extremely common and predictable at times._

_She took the pill and nodded, telling the maid to leave. After the maid left, she took a bottle of her own water and took the pill._

'_You can never be too careful with the maids as well…they show support to one sibling, but serve to another…'_

_The world was full of deceptions and deceptive people… and Aiko ended up being stuck in a house full of them._

_**-x-**_

Just when she took the pill, she heard screaming.

"AHHHH!"

Aiko got off of her bed and looked outside her bedroom.

It was Fuyuko screaming and pointing at an unconscious Shizuo who was currently on the floor.

"Shizuo!! Wake up nii-san… please!"

All the family and the servants went to Shizuo's room trying to figure out what happened.

And finally, the great Kazuhiko Kentaro walked into the room, and everyone moved aside for him.

"What happened?"

"Otou-sama, I went into Shizuo's room to ask him something about my homework, and then he just… got really mad at me and soon we started fighting and-"

Aiko stopped listening to all that.

It was a lie. There wasn't any fighting going on, it was silent when she was in her room, and Shizuo was always the main target anyways.

Shizuo was the oldest son- the one who was most likely to inherit the family business, but even though he was very conscientious and one of their father's favorites, he was sly and devious, and Kentaro wanted him to straighten up and act honorable…

Aiko thought of him as the blockhead of the family.

After Shizuo, there was Fuyuko. She was the prettiest, and she could get away with pretty much anything with that beautiful smile of hers. As the oldest daughter and second child, she was the 'mother hen' at times, very responsible and can handle things, but their father wasn't sure whether smiles could finish up a business contract.

It was pretty obvious that if Fuyuko could get Shizuo off of the 'race to be the heir,' then she would be the next in line.

Itsuko- the clone and shadow of Fuyuko. Not as pretty, but more clever, she could get her way out of things and even in things but using her words. She knew exactly what to say to get people interested in anything, and if she didn't like you, she would ditch you. Aiko believed that Father liked her the most since words could get you places, but she just needed a sensible brain to finish it up.

She was the one who would get in the most trouble; but she could be the next heiress if she plays her cards right… but the possibility of that is less than zero.

After Itsuko, there was Tatsuya. He was the kindest of the two sons, and one of the most artistically talented in the family. There were people from all over Japan who would come to see his art and his musical skills. Aiko liked him since they were the two youngest and they had many things in common except for one thing. Tatsuya had no intention to become the heir and leader of the companies after father began to reject him due to the fact that he confronted his father saying that he wanted to pull out.

Aiko and Tatsuya were extremely close, and Aiko liked him the most. Aiko believed that Tatsuya was the smartest and the cleverest, but he just didn't want to use his talents.

_Flashback:_

"_Tatsuya… you have to still be in the race!"_

"_No Aiko…Everyone else excluding the both of us are so conniving and deceiving, and I don't want to be like them…I can't even tell others what family I'm in and who are my brothers and sisters! I feel disgraceful and horrible, and that being in the Kazuhiko family is a curse- a dreadful curse."_

"_But what about Father?"_

"_I told him, and he got mad… but I don't think he really cares."_

"_Oh yeah, and he shows his affection by slapping you," she pointed at his cheek and the blood on his lip, "that's right… he loves you very much."_

"_Aiko…"_

"_I'm just saying nii-san; I thought that you wanted to be the 'peaceful heir,' to restore the honor and to make the industry thrive."_

"_No. I found out that I have no intention to become the heir. Instead, I will help you, and I want to make you the heiress of the companies, all the others have no chance, they all lack that certain something that you have…"_

"_And what would that be?"_

"_A conscience."_

-x-

Aiko replayed that moment in her mind.

'_What did that even mean?'_

"Aiko…"

"Yes Otou-sama?"

"What do you think of this…?"

She stopped and looked at him. It was rare for him to ask anyone about their opinions about something, and asking Aiko, that was amazing. However, he probably noticed that she wasn't listening, so that's why… she put the pieces that she was listening to and put them together.

"I believe that she was lying."

"Oh really?" Itsuko added, "Why don't you explain my…" she looked at her father, and she couldn't taunt her. "My darling little sister."

"Yes Itsuko nee-san. As for proof, I do not see any notebooks, textbooks or any of the sorts, but perhaps she wanted Shizuo to go into her room. Also, if anyone noticed, there's some sort of redness on his face. She must have punched him or hit him on the face to make him fall, and I don't exactly remember if he ever had some sort of fainting habit before…"

Fuyuko looked at her with stern eyes and then looked at her father with loving eyes.

"Can we at least put Shizuo onto the bed please Otou-sama?"

Two butlers came and carried Shizuo onto the bed, Shizuo groaning when he opened his eyes.

"What happened? Last thing I remember is Fuyuko coming in and hitting me…"

His eyes darted around the room, seeing all the staff and family, as well as Fuyuko.

"Poor brother… he must have been dazed or something- do you think it is amnesia?"

"No," a voice said, "I think that it was you Fuyuko nee-san."

Aiko looked back and saw Tatsuya right behind her; he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Aiko is right… Fuyuko is lying- Otou-sama, please believe her."

"Oh please!" Itsuko retorted, "What makes Otou-sama think that he should believe you! You weren't even here until now."

"Yes, but do you honestly think that with Fuyuko's figure, she could actually knock out someone with that kind of magnitude to give Shizuo amnesia? Think about Itsuko, there's no way that can happen."

They all looked to their father, hoping for some sort of reaction.

"Fuyuko… go to your room and finish your homework. Shizuo, stay in bed. As for the rest of you- give Shizuo some space."

He left the room, looking as if nothing happened.

-x-

"_But Tatsuya… there must be a reason why you __**must**_ _pull out, it doesn't seem like you to quit."_

"_You're right…but there is a reason."_

"_And the reason is not that you want me to succeed and win."_

"_Well, not exactly, but we can always kill two birds with one stone."_

"_But nii-san, think about it… now there's only one male in the race, and now it's pretty obvious who father might pick now…do you honestly want that blockhead to win?"_

"_No, I don't."_

"_Then stay in the race, succeed and do it in a way that you think is right."_

"_But there is no way. Father doesn't prefer me."_

"_Do you honestly think that Father likes me? I'm the youngest child, a girl, and I have no talent whatsoever that would make Father even notice me."_

"_You have talent, so stop being this way."_

"_No, you stop being this way, you're avoiding something and I know it. I can see it in your eyes. You're not telling the reason why you actually quit or you had to quit. Just tell me, it's alright."_

-x-

The conversation Tatsuya and Aiko had been replaying in her mind as she was at school.

"Kazuhiko-san, what's the answer to question 6?"

She looked at the question, trying to figure it out in her head.

'_The answer is…'_

She looked around and saw Kyoya looking at her.

There was a note on her desk and she carefully opened it up.

_**The answer is 2.67.**_

Aiko nodded and looked at the teacher.

"The answer is 2.67."

"Good," the teacher said, "you were actually paying attention."

'_Not really…but whatever you say Sensei…'_

As soon as the bell rang, Aiko went straight out of the classroom, rushing to get away from everyone else.

-x-

"_There has to be a reason."_

"_What if I told you that there wasn't."_

"_Everything has a reason Tatsuya, stop avoiding the question and not giving me the answer!"_

"_What if I told you that I was illegitimate… would you believe me?"_

"_Illegitimate…"_

"_Illegitimate in being the heir."_

-x-

'_Illegitimate… in being the heir? That's… impossible. Everyone… there's no way, I don't understand…'_

Her thoughts were interrupted by Tamaki and Kyoya.

"Oh… it's you two."

"It's better if you pay attention in math class you know… Otherwise, you wouldn't require help from me."

"Oh- should I be gracious that the almighty Ootori offered to help me with one stupid math problem? I already knew the answer, and your help was not needed."

"Perhaps you should be gracious Kazuhiko-san, because after all, your family is very honorable, and you shouldn't tarnish it with your bad behavior."

"And you shouldn't be tarnishing your family honor by flirting and hooking up with girls; that's… scandalous!"

"What can I say? Perhaps I'm just that kind of person," he said with a smirk, "I thought that you would like people like that."

"Your kind of people? Your 'kind' are conniving, deceiving, and cheating."

"And what about yours? Don't all families like ours reach for the same goal- to become the ultimate powerful family?"

"Yes, but we do it the right way, unlike you."

"And who ever stated in the rules that there was a right way and a wrong way; in fact Kazuhiko-san, there were never any rules."

"What about the rules of your conscience? Do you enjoy your conscience eating you up every time you make a choice?"

"You should learn right now to trash your conscience and do what is right… the ends justify the means after all."

Tamaki was watching the entire time when Kyoya and Aiko were bickering.

"Thank you Ootori-san, and Suoh-san, next time you should participate in these kinds of discussions, even if you are an only child, you should learn about the ways of being in the working; and maybe next time, you can give off a bit of wisdom to your friend about the meaning of the word conscience."

She picked up her tray and left the table.

"Aiko-san! You didn't even eat!" Tamaki yelled

"That's fine… I don't want to eat with Kyoya-san being next to me or even in the same vicinity."

She trashed her tray and left.

-x-

"_Illegitimate? How is that possible? Tatsuya, you're a Kazuhiko…"_

"_Yes I am Aiko, but haven't you ever noticed?"_

"_Noticed what?"_

"_How I look different than the rest of you!! Everyone has such dark hair, and here I am with light brown! How come that no one else shares that same talent for art and painting as I do? Everyone is so different than I am- but surely you must have noticed…"_

_Aiko looked at him, bruised and bloodied up, as he was getting angry for Aiko not noticing the differences._

"_But…"_

"_There is no 'buts' Aiko, I'm different, and that's why I can't be in the race."_

"_But…you're different in talent and looks, not by lineage."_

"_Oh really? You don't think I am?"  
_

"_No, because…"_

"_I am different Aiko," he took a deep breath and started over, "I am different. We have different mothers. Father had me with another woman, and… now I am considered illegitimate, but I carry the Kazuhiko name. I'm not…" he struggled to find the word, "pure like the rest of you."_

_Aiko looked at him, her eyes opened wide as he admitted his confession. She looked down and went on her knees; and her hands went up to her face, covering up her sad expression._

"_I never knew nii-san… I'm so sorry."_

_Tatsuya went down on his knees, and grasped Aiko's hands._

"_Don't be… you shouldn't be…this isn't your fault or anything."_

"_But… how could I be so… stupid! Not noticing and being totally unaware of it…"_

"_It's not your fault- stop putting the blame on yourself."_

_Tatsuya embraced her and she noticed tears coming down from his eyes._

"_Arigato… Aiko."_

-x-

Aiko looked at the water fountain outside in the center of the gardens. As the water was coming down, she put her finger in the calm water, making tiny ripples in the fountain.

"Contemplating?"

"Eh? Who is it?"

She looked back to see Kyoya looking at her.

"Go away."

"It seems like you always come here whenever you have problems or you have to think. I saw you here the other day on the swinging bench just staring at the ground."

"So… are you stalking me?" She started staring at him with her cold expression.

"I have one question to ask you."

"And what would that be Ootori-san?"

"Where's the other brother?" He asked sternly.

Aiko looked at him, her eyes started widening up.

-x-

"_Aiko!"_

_Aiko looked back and saw Tatsuya in his school uniform._

"_Eh?"_

"_Father removed me."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_All my records, they're gone…I'm no longer your brother."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_There's no reference to me being your official brother anymore, it's just Shizuo now."  
_

"_That doesn't make any sense…"_

"_Yes it does. Father removed me in the race, and now before he's put to shame for having a child with another woman, he removed me from the family… and now I share my mother's last name."_

"_So you have a new name?"_

"_Yes… Kiyoshi Tatsuya. You no longer have to call me nii-san, it's just Tatsuya."_

_Aiko dropped all her books and ran to hug Tatsuya._

"_I will never call you Tatsuya, because in my mind, you are my brother, no matter your lineage, and you will always be my brother, nii-san."_

"_But Otou-sama…"_

"_Who cares? You are my brother, and will always be my brother."_

-x-

"What brother?"

"Aiko-san, don't joke around… I know that you have another brother. Tatsuya, isn't it?"

"No… I don't." _'Why do I doubt his existence…I do have a brother… his name is Tatsuya… I just…'_

"You're flinching Kazuhiko-san, you're hiding something."

Kyoya walked over and put a hand on her cheek and whispered, "This will be our little secret… about Tatsuya… Don't forget that I know everything about everyone…"

"Oh stop rubbing it in. Just because you are the son of Yoshio-sama doesn't mean that you get to flaunt."

"Oh really? Well, maybe you should try it one day, stop being so humble."

"And you should stop being an ass."

Kyoya pushed up his glasses and smirked. "Have a good day, Aiko-chan."

He walked away, and as Aiko looked at his retreating figure…

'_I really want to chuck something at him right now…'_

-x-

**Long story… a confession… a little bit about Aiko's history and her family… happy?**

**I hope that you will **_**review.**_

**And I hope that you like this story- and I hope that this is a soon enough update.**

**Please note that with school on the way, slower updates, and…**

**More reviews would be nice. ^^  
**

**Arigato!**

**(Note: Not edited, so before people might complain about grammar issues... this is not edited. Will be soon. I don't have a beta...)  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:**

**Gosh, I kind of really wanted more reviews, but Angelhost19 was there to review my story! Thank you oh so very much!! Please review, it would totally make me and Kyoya happy… I don't think he's happy about the lack of people coming to read this story.**

**(*Note: Not edited.)  
**

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World…**_

"_Where's the other brother?"_

_Aiko looked at him, her eyes started widening up._

_-x-_

As Aiko went home after that experience, she was replaying the entire event in her mind.

"_What brother?"_

"_Aiko-san, don't joke around… I know that you have another brother. Tatsuya, isn't it?"_

"_No… I don't." 'Why do I doubt his existence…I do have a brother… his name is Tatsuya… I just…'_

"_You're flinching Kazuhiko-san, you're hiding something."_

_Kyoya walked over and put a hand on her cheek, "This will be our little secret… about Tatsuya… Don't forget that I know everything about everyone…"_

It made her feel mentally unsafe.

'_If he knows about Tatsuya… who knows what he will do with that knowledge, and what else does he know about my family?''_

"Driver, please hurry home." She said in a stern voice.

"Hai Aiko-sama."

She lay back down, with the seat supporting her back and exhaled out loudly.

"What am I going to do now?"

-x-

When Aiko arrived, she quickly went into her father's office.

She took a deep breath and hoped that he would be in the office, perfectly happy.

"Come in," said a deep and stern voice, "and make it quick."

She looked down at the floor and then opened the door.

"Otou-sama," she knelt down onto the ground and bowed so low that her head touched the floor, "I have bad news."

"What is it this time?"

"He knows," she gulped, "about Tatsuya."

Kentaro looked at her and stood up.

"What do you mean? He shouldn't know. Tatsuya has been eradicated from all records affiliated with the Kazuhiko family. There shouldn't be a way."

"But… he does. I guess he must have looked into the-"

He slammed his fist onto his desk.

"There shouldn't be a way that he knows," he pointed at Aiko, "You must have told him, or someone from our family must have told him. Tatsuya is no longer a part of our family."

Aiko stood up and looked him in the eyes.

"Otou-sama, Tatsuya is a part of us. He is at least half of our family. Please don't say such words. I would never tell Kyoya about Tatsuya."

Kentaro walked over and slapped Aiko in the face, a red blemish immediately was on her face. "You're on first name basis now with Ootori-san?"

"Oh… no- of course I wouldn't be Otou-sama. I can't stand him."

"Stop lying! You're in love with Ootori Kyoya, and you know it. How could you do this? You weren't supposed to even do this!"

"But… Otou-sama…"

"You… you slut!"

He pushed her against the wall, her body falling to the ground, trembling as her father stared at her mangled body.

"You disgust me."

He walked out of the office; Fuyuko, Itsuko and Tatsuya were outside, the two sisters looked down while Tatsuya bowed.

Itsuko looked at Aiko's body.

"Heh. Look at her- what a slut! She's in love with the Ootori boy even though Otou-sama wants her with someone else."

Fuyuko looked at Aiko while listening to Itsuko rant about how ugly Aiko was.

"… And she even wants Tatsuya to still be part of the family! You should hear her; she still calls him 'nii-san,' which is so stupid of her! She totally deserved it."

Fuyuko walked away, with Itsuko following her. Tatsuya ran into the room and put Aiko's head onto his lap.

"Aiko… you shouldn't defend me like that. I'm no longer a part of your family. I'm just here to finish my education and then Kentaro-sama will kick me out."

Aiko didn't stir, her body was still and her breathing was very slow.

"Aiko… please… please get up!!"

There was a knock on the door.

"Excuse me?" said a foreign voice.

Tatsuya turned around, as his back was facing the door.

It was Ootori Kyoya- he remembered.

_-x-_

"_Tatsuya nii-san!!" Aiko ran to his music room._

_The music room had all sorts of instruments. Tatsuya was playing the piano when Aiko was speaking._

"_Ah… Aiko- how was school?"_

"_It was good. I met these two people- Suoh Tamaki and Ootori Kyoya. Suoh-san has blond hair and these really unique purple eyes- something that I've never seen before; and Ootori-san, he looks like a regular Japanese person. He has dark colored hair and glasses too. He tends to look very serious while his counterpart is the exact opposite."_

"…_You were always the most observant one of the family."_

"_Well, you taught me to look at my surroundings and to notice things."_

"_Yes, you have learned well," he did a mock bow, "grasshopper."_

_Aiko laughed and Tatsuya soon joined her, creating a loud sound of laughter that radiated throughout the room._

_-x-_

"Yes… may I help you?"

"Yes. I'm looking for," he stopped when he saw a body lying on the floor, with blood dripping in tiny drops on the floor.

Tatsuya made an imaginary line from Kyoya's eyes to the target which he was looking at.

'_Oh no. Aiko!'_

Tatsuya immediately spoke up. "Kentaro-sama is not present right now, so please wait in the guest room where a maid will be there to find Kentaro-sama."

He picked up Aiko's body, carried her bridal style and walked out as fast as he could.

"Tatsuya-san… you are her brother?"

Tatsuya stopped in his tracks, and looked back at Kyoya.

"Our family business is definitely none of your concern." He walked away, with Aiko in his arms and ran quickly up the stairs.

Kyoya walked to the guest room and sat on the couch.

'_That was Aiko. What happened?'_

His thoughts were interrupted by Aiko's father who stepped into the room.

Kyoya quickly stood up and bowed.

"Kazuhiko Kentaro-sama, my name is Ootori Kyoya and I was-"

He was interrupted by Kentaro who sternly asked, "What do you want?"

"I have come in place of my father Ootori Yoshiro to present you this invitation to this year's upcoming celebration of the new Ootori medical facility."

Kentaro took the invitation and looked at it.

"Funny… I never actually get invited to these sorts of functions that are sponsored or set by the Ootori family… is there some fee or some sort of donation that your father wants from me?"

Kyoya looked at him. _'Like father like daughter…' _

"No… there is no sort of intention of that sort of means at all," He picked up his briefcase and looked at Kentaro again. "Please RSVP and send the invitation at the address at the bottom of the invitation. Thank you for letting me use a little bit of your time."

Kyoya walked out the door and left. Just before he left the house, he looked up at the two stairwells and saw Tatsuya glaring at Kyoya.

"I don't understand this…" Tatsuya said, "I just don't understand. Why is my sister so in love with you?"

"Excuse me?"

-x-

**Um… I guess that it's a bit shorter than usual. (sorry for the cliff hanger thing.)  
**

**Perhaps I feel sad because there's no one reviewing… except for the awesome person who I credited up at the top of the chapter!**

**Look, to be honest, I know that there's a ton of people who click that option that says: "Put on story alert" or something like that… but it's mean (or offending) that when I get the email, I see "story alert" instead of reviews… because everyone should share the love ^_^.**

**With that said, please review, because everyone who does will get a cookie or some sort of dessert of their liking! (Or review so you don't make me sad… I'm a very sensitive person… :( )**


	7. Chapter 7

**YAY!**

**Thank you for all the reviews people!! I am oh-so-very happy!!**

**List of ah-mazing people!**

**Freyasakura**

**GreyLily**

**Draycos (BTW: Your review two chapters ago totally counted!)**

**Kairi the Strong**

**Girl-Kaulitz**

**Darkangelsonic**

**xSweetNightmaresx**

**Great story**

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World…**_

"_I don't understand this…" Tatsuya said, "I just don't understand. Why is my sister so in love with you?"_

"_Excuse me?"_

**-x-**

"You know… that person that you look at with such disdain… that's my sister- Aiko."

"So you are her brother."

"Yes," he staggered and looked around, "but not anymore. And that's not the point."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying is that it's your entire fault."

"Entire fault…" he muttered, "please elaborate."

"Let me simplify this for you- you saw my sister unconscious and all bloodied up. Do you want to know why? She went in there… and… and…" He stopped speaking.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"No! That's not the point."

"Well, I have things to attend to and you're just a waste of my time."

"And is that what everyone is to you? Everyone is 'just a waste of my time?'"

"Well, your constant babbling is."

"Then what about Suoh Tamaki?"

"What about Tamaki? How do you know about him?"

"Well, he's probably just a friend with 'benefits.' Am I right?"

"Perhaps. But I don't expect you to read people's minds."

A distant voice whispered out, "Tatsuya?"

"I'll be right there. I'm taking care of some business."

"Ok…"

"Just go back to sleep Aiko- I'll be there in a minute."

"Hm… I hear voices nii-san."

Kyoya looked up and saw two girls walking down the staircases.

"Hi! My name is Itsuko and this is my sister Fuyuko and we're-"

"Aiko's older sisters." Kyoya finished.

"Yeah!" Itsuko put a hand on his shoulder, "we are! You're so smart…"

"Thank you. I aim to please."

"Itsuko. Please stop." Tatsuya said.

"Oh shut up! You and Aiko always ruin the fun; being so serious and everything. Who are you to even call me out! You're not even part of the family! So go and crawl back to that tiny shack you call your home."

"It's not a shack." Someone added.

Kyoya looked up to where the voice was and saw Aiko standing there next to Tatsuya.

"What are you doing up," Tatsuya said in a soft voice, "Go back to bed and get some rest."

"You took too long. I had to go and see what the commotion was that was disrupting my sleep. Plus with Itsuko here, there can never be any peace and quiet."

Kyoya looked at the mini family battle that was going on and then looked at Aiko.

Aiko had bruises on her arms and a red mark on her cheek. There seemed to be a scrape on her right arm (Kyoya was very attentive apparently), and she had a very dissatisfying expression on her face.

"Could you people please stop," Fuyuko said, "After all, we do have a guest here."

Aiko glanced over and saw Kyoya and stared at him.

"Tatsuya," she tugged on the bottom of his shirt, "What's he doing here?"

"Well..." He said, but couldn't finish the sentence.

"I was just on my way out," Kyoya finished for him, "Good day Tatsuya-san, Itsuko-san and Fuyuko-san."

He opened the front door and left.

Itsuko ran out of the front door and started waving her hand frantically screaming, "Good bye Kyoya-kun!"

Aiko walked down the stairs and into the living room where there was a giant window; she saw a black car go down the long driveway- her eyes trailed, following the black car until she could no longer see it.

"Goodbye Ootori-san," she whispered, "I'm sorry."

In this entire family-crazed house, why did she have to pull Ootori Kyoya into it as well?

­**-x-**

The next day at school was completely different.

Aiko ended up putting on makeup to cover up the bruises. No matter how much she wished for them to be gone, she looked around and still saw them there. Unfortunately, she didn't have the gene from her mother to heal quickly and recover, so she ended up having to deal with the pain.

As she entered in the car, she saw her two sisters who went to Lobelia leave in a separate car, Shizuo in another, and Tatsuya walking to school. He had to withdraw from the school and go to another distant school with a different name. Everyday he had to walk to town and catch the bus.

Tatsuya looked at her and Aiko waved. Tatsuya waved back and stared forward in the direction that he was going.

"Aiko-san, are you ready to leave?"

She nodded, and the driver shut her car door.

On the way to school, she picked up her book and started reading. As the car stopped on the red light, she noticed that she forgot to re-bandage her scrape again.

"It should be ok," she muttered, "I'll fix it later."

A few minutes later, the car approached the school and Aiko opened the door and went quickly into the building, avoiding contact and socializing with anyone.

'_It's not like I have any friends anyway…why should I even bother?'_

She walked into the school doors and went straight into her classroom.

She saw Kyoya sitting alone, typing on his laptop. Aiko looked at him and at his facial expression. Kyoya always either had a smirk or a serious face. His eyes never portrayed any emotion at all, and if he could, refrain from speaking unless he was spoken to. She never quite understood people like him, but she could understand and empathize.

"Aiko-san?" Kyoya said, not looking up from his computer, "How are you?"

Her eyes widened; she immediately regained her composure and answered, "Fine, how are you?"

"Well, I wouldn't even be going to school with that episode you had yesterday."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't lie," Kyoya said, "I know what happened, so you don't have to cover up just for me."

"Just for you? You make it seem like you are an exception."

"But yes I am aren't I? I thought that what your brother implied."

"My brother didn't imply anything," Aiko retorted, "Shizuo is too stupid to even know what's going on with other people."

"I didn't mean Shizuo. I didn't even see him the other day."

"Then who?"

"Tatsuya. It looks like he really does care for you…"

"Well… he was my brother wasn't he?"

"Keyword 'was.'"

"What's your point?"

"I'm just saying that…" He stood up and went to Aiko, touching her shoulder, "Perhaps Tatsuya isn't-"

"Stop- just stop. Don't even bother, no one even asked you for your opinion."

She retreated out of the room until Kyoya said, "And that's why he told me that you love me."

She stopped and turned around. "He did what?"

"He said that you were in love with me."

She chuckled, "Why would I be in love with you?"

"That's a question that you shouldn't be asking me."

"Well… Don't listen to him. It's not true." She turned so her back was facing Kyoya, making sure that he didn't see her face, "Just leave me alone and get out of my life."

She walked away and ran down the hall.

'_God, how could I be so immature?'_

Kyoya walked back to his laptop and continued his work.

-x-

"Kazuhiko! You have to focus!"

She looked towards the conductor of the orchestra and nodded.

"Everyone, start again from page four measure fifty six!"

The music started up again until the doors opened. Out came seven people who started walking in.

"My fellow schoolmates!" Tamaki shouted, "May we use your musical talents for our Host Club Ball?"

All the girls in the orchestra (except for Aiko and Rika) dropped their instruments and ran towards the Host Club.

And all of a sudden, all the beautiful music that was played became filled with screams of "Tamaki-sama!" and "We love the Host Club!"

Rika walked up to Mori and Hani and bowed. She then walked over to Tamaki and asked, "Why are you here?"

"Oh yes!" Tamaki finally remembered, "We would like to ask the orchestra to perform music for the Host Club Ball!"

Rika looked around and saw all the girls' pleading stares and finally said, "When is it?"

Everyone cheered, except for Aiko who was still on the stage and for some guys who packed up their instruments and left.

A hand touched her shoulder and Aiko jumped up out of her seat. She turned around and saw Kyoya looking at her with a funny grin.

"I never knew that you could get agitated like that."

"Well, you don't know much about me."

"True… and that's why I wanted to ask you something."

"And what would that be?"

"Prove that you don't love me."

"And how can I do that?"

"Come to my family's party for our new medical wing opening as my date."

"What does that prove?"

"If you say yes, then you like me, if not, then well…" he whispered in her ear, "You'll be missing out on a lot."

Aiko's face turned a little pink from what he said, but ignored it and retorted, "What will I be missing out on? You'll probably invite Itsuko or something."

Kyoya whispered again, "Maybe I will… are you jealous?"

"No, not at all."

"Well then," he said in a normal voice, "judging by your face and your expression, you must be pretty upset."

"No!" She shook her head furiously, "I am not."

"Well then," he touched a lock of her hair, "you will be my date."

She looked at his face and then looked down at the ground, with an upset grin on her face.

'_What is going on?'_

**-x-**

**Sorry for the LONG update. With Chinese New Year and school and everything- it makes me want to explode. (Just kidding- then who would actually finish this story?)**

**And alas, I have no beta editor person- so this is NOT edited… not yet anyways. **

**Please review, I would like to know your opinions on things (like if it's good or if it sucks so bad that no one would read it- I personally like the first answer), but thanks for staying strong with my story and the more reviews means more love. ^^**

**-IxD (The one and only!)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:**

**Hello everyone! I'm trying to update as soon as possible. I've been really busy, and I have been getting reviews of "Update soon!" or "I really like this story and update more!"**

**Two words: Thank you!!! ^_^ I hope that you will continue to support the story even if the updates are a little… slow.**

**Again, thanks for the reviews and on with the story!**

**-x-**

**Last time on ****To See the World…**

"_**Well then," he touched a lock of her hair, "you will be my date."**_

_**She looked at his face and then looked down at the ground, with an upset grin on her face.**_

'_**What is going on?' **_

_**s**_

**-x-**

The minute Aiko got home; she went quickly into Tatsuya's room with an angry glare.

"What did you do…" she stopped her sentence midway and saw Tatsuya there with a woman.

Her eyes opened up wide when Tatsuya and the woman were embracing each other and there were tears in the woman's eyes.

"Aiko, meet my mother, Kiyoshi Ayumi."

"Kiyoshi Ayumi?? Like _the_ Kiyoshi Ayumi concert pianist?"

The woman nodded, "The one and only!"

Aiko bowed down in respect, "I'm happy to make your acquaintance."

Ayumi laughed, "It's very nice to meet you too!"

Fuyuko knocked on the door and entered into the room.

"Aiko-chan, Otou-sama wants you to meet him in his office now."

Aiko said her goodbyes and walked out of the room, while Tatsuya and Ayumi were still in the room, Tatsuya looking at Aiko's retreating form.

**-x-**

"Otou-sama?" She opened the door and bowed down, trying to avoid her father's eyes.

"Aiko," he began, "I believe that you have been invited to the Ootori Banquet this weekend."

"Hai Otou-sama… will you be going?"

"No I will not. I am way too busy with other business arrangements. I ask you to go to the banquet for me and make some public relations with other companies."

"Hai, Otou-sama, I definitely will."

She turned around to leave his office until he added, "Itsuko will be with you as well. Take care of her."

Aiko nodded and left the room. "Arigato Otou-sama."

**-x-**

Tatsuya and his mother went out to the center of town where they were eating lunch at a noodle shop.

"So, Okaa-sama," Tatsuya began, "How are you doing?"

She looked at her son. "I'm very good." She noticed how stiff the atmosphere was and tried to break the ice.

"How's school?"

"It's good."

'_Am I that out of touch with my own son?'_

"Okaa-sama, I hate to be blunt and straight forward, but, I wanted to know the reason why you came back."

She laughed a little bit and answered, "Can't I just see my son, even for a little while?"

"Yes, but the timing is a little bit off. According to your website, you should be in Germany right now."

"Well, I needed some time off from touring and performing, and I wanted to come back to Japan."

He nodded and continued eating his noodles.

"Tatsuya, I want to ask you something. There is really a reason why I came back to Japan to see you."

He looked up from his bowl and looked at her.

"I want you to come with me. Come back with your mother and leave Japan."

He opened his eyes wide in shock and dropped his chopsticks into the bowl.

**-x-**

'_Where can Tatsuya be?'_ Aiko thought, _'He never leaves without telling me…'_

It was six o'clock and Aiko wanted to talk to Tatsuya.

"Oh… where can he be?" she was worried.

**-x-**

Tatsuya quietly walked up the stairs and into his room, trying not to attract anyone's attention (especially Aiko's) and opened his door.

He saw Aiko on his bed sleeping quietly.

Tatsuya walked over to Aiko and picked her up and brought her into her own room.

'_Was Aiko waiting for me to come back all this time?'_

He replayed what had happened with his mother, over and over again, he just couldn't forget her offer.

"_Come back with me Tatsuya," Ayumi said, "And you'll be away from the Kazuhiko family. Besides, I thought that they didn't treat you right."_

_He nodded and looked at his soup bowl. "They don't, but Aiko does."_

"_That's just a little girl who just feels pity for you."_

_He looked up at his mother and said, "No, that's a girl that really cares for other people. I won't leave, not when I'm so close to finishing high school."_

_Ayumi chuckled and responded, "What's the point of finishing high school if you know what you already want to do? You are talented in the arts, so pursue your talent and achieve greater accomplishments with it."_

"_I never told you that I __**wanted**__ to be a performer or an artist, I aspire to be something more than that."_

"_And what would that be?"_

_Tatsuya didn't respond._

"_That's what I thought."_

**-x-**

The next morning, Aiko woke up noticing that she was on her own bed, properly tucked in.

"What happened? I thought that I was in Tatsuya's room, waiting for him to come back home."

She got out of bed and changed into a casual outfit, and took her medicine.

"Aiko," Tatsuya called, "Thanks for waiting for me… I'm sorry that I came back late."

Aiko shook her head, "It's fine, you were just probably bonding with your mother. I totally understand."

Tatsuya nodded and walked downstairs, heading to the dining room.

Aiko followed and greeted her father and her mother.

"Otou-sama. Okaa-sama." She bowed her head down and walked to her seat.

Breakfast was normally a quiet meal, unless Itsuko was talking.

"So Aiko-chan," Itsuko began, "Otou-sama said that you could go the Social… what are you going to wear?"

Aiko looked up at Itsuko and said, "I don't know. I want to go shopping for a dress later today, but I'm not sure if I want to."

Itsuko smiled, "Of course you do!! Every girl loves to shop, and that means you of course!"

Aiko nodded, "I just need to finish some things and then I will go shopping."

"Let me go with you!"

"Uh…" Aiko began, "That's ok. I think that I can shop for myself."

"Let me go with you! I would love to!"

Aiko nodded and looked down at her eggs and continued eating.

'_This means trouble.'_

**-x-**

Later in the afternoon, Aiko and Itsuko were in the car and going to the mall to find dresses.

"Itsuko-nee-san, why are you coming?"

"Well, I need to shop, it's been awhile and I need to buy a new dress."

"Nee-san, you went shopping just two days ago… and are you going to the Social?"

She nodded and added in a low tone, "And don't you dare get in my way."

Aiko looked away and towards the window, trying not to talk to her sister.

The rest of the car ride was silent.

**-x-**

When Aiko and Itsuko finally reached the dress shop, Itsuko had bags and bags of clothes that were 'essential' and accessories that were 'in style.'

"Ok, first rule in buying dresses: Never **ever** outdo your older sister, and buy a dress that is simpler and not that fancy."

"When did that become a rule?"

"Now. So follow it and don't buy anything that costs more than what I'm buying."

Aiko walked off and looked at dresses.

She noticed this navy blue evening dress that wasn't too casual but wasn't too fancy. It had some chiffon going down towards the end of the skirt and it went down to her knees.

Itsuko noticed her looking for the skirt and immediately ran over to her.

"No! Don't wear that, it's too pr--" she cut off her sentence by adding, "It's too fancy for this kind of occasion, wear something like this."

She took out this brown halter dress that had little mini crystals in the center. It wasn't fancy, but it didn't flatter her figure. Nonetheless, Aiko accepted the dress and went to the dressing room.

However, she didn't notice another person who was watching her every move.

**-x-**

Tamaki had to drag him to the mall.

Tamaki just _had_to go the mall… with him… and Haruhi.

Haruhi didn't mind… but Kyoya did.

It wasn't interesting until he noticed Aiko shopping for dresses and Itsuko yelling at her.

He couldn't forget the flashy sister of the Kazuhiko family; she always seemed to be in everyone else's face.

He noticed the dress that Aiko liked and looked at it. It was really nice, and it would definitely flatter her figure. He tried imagining her in it.

Wait… was Kyoya actually thinking about things like that?

Yes, yes he was. And he didn't mind it at all.

**-x-**

"Oh look Aiko!! The dress looks beautiful on you!"

Aiko looked at the mirror and smiled at it. She didn't _hate_ the dress, but it wasn't exactly her most optimal choice.

"It's… nice."

"Good, so take it off and let's go and buy it!"

"What about your dress?"

"Oh, I already bought it while you were changing."

"That fast?"

"Yep!"

"Can I see it?"

Itsuko shook her head, "It's going to be a surprise!"

Aiko walked over to the cashier and bought the dress with a pair of brown heels that Itsuko thought matched with the dress.

'_I bet that Itsuko is going to wear something so… not appropriate for the Social that she's worried that I'll say something to Otou-sama.'_

The cashier thanked her and gave her the bags.

Aiko turned around and saw Itsuko running to Kyoya who was talking to Tamaki and Haruhi.

"Kyoya-san??" Aiko opened her eyes wide and dropped her bags.

**-x-**

Kyoya walked over to her, completely ignoring Itsuko, "I noticed that you now want to call me by my first name now?"

"Eh?" She noticed that she dropped all her stuff and tried to pick them up quickly. "I never knew that you go to the mall."

"I don't. I never thought that you would either."

"I don't… but Itsuko wanted to go and I needed a dress."

"So are all of those bags yours?" He pointed to the man following Itsuko and carrying all of her bags.

"No, they aren't. I try not to spend that much money since Itsuko and the rest of my siblings spend a lot of money. I just spend for things that I need."

"I always thought that girls like you always splurge on things that they don't need, with the exception of Haruhi."

"Well, I guess that your perception of the female gender is warped and distorted. Not all women are like that. It's true that women do spend a lot of money on things that they might not need, but some don't. I think that it's just a way to fill that empty void in their heart after someone they love and care for leave them… or if you are just a spoiled girl like Itsuko."

"I see."

"So… why are you really here?" Aiko inquired, "It seems… out of character for you to be here."

He pointed to Tamaki who was cheerfully talking to Itsuko, "He dragged me here, and he decided to bring his girlfriend along."

"I see." She looked at Haruhi and Tamaki who were holding hands and smiling together, "They make a nice couple."

"Yes they do."

"It must be horrible to just follow them around and be the third wheel."

"Yes it is."

Aiko was going to ask Kyoya another question until Itsuko popped up out of nowhere next to Kyoya's side.

"Kyoya-kun! I didn't know that you like to shop!"

"I don't, but I noticed that you enjoy shopping."

"Yes I do! Aiko on the other hand is such a fuddy-duddy person and doesn't like to. She's such a loser."

Aiko, who was currently right across from Itsuko, smiled and said, "Excuse me Ootori-san; I'll see you at the Social."

She took the bags and left the shop, telling the man not to take her bags since his hands were already filled with Itsuko's items.

"Suoh-san! Fujioka-san!" Aiko called, "It's very nice to see you again."

"Oh Aiko-san," Haruhi asked, "Would you like to go to lunch with the three of us? We were going to ask Itsuko-san, but she left before we could ask the question."

"Ah," Aiko laughed, "She seems to do that a lot to people. She even does that at home."

"Please come Aiko-san, we would love to have you come with us!" Tamaki added.

Before Aiko could respond, Itsuko ran over to her and hugged Aiko and added in a sweet yet fake tone, "Aiko-chan, we should be heading home now, perhaps next time you can hang out with your friends. I need to go home, and we don't want to bother the drivers by driving _just_ to pick you up right?"

Aiko nodded, "Perhaps it is best if I go home now. Maybe next time we can eat lunch together."

Itsuko whispered, "Let's go now Aiko, you can socialize with your friends another time. I have to go home and go to the nail salon."

Aiko nodded again, she seemed to be doing that a lot today.

"See you later Fujioka-san, Suoh-san!" She waved good-bye as her sister was walking to Kyoya.

"Bye-bye Kyoya-kun!" She kissed his cheek and ran off.

Aiko looked at Kyoya and lowered her head as a silent good-bye and walked off, following Itsuko.

"For some reason, every time when Aiko is around her family, she seems sadder than when she is at school. She's always so quiet," Haruhi said to Tamaki and Kyoya.

"Yes… we must make her feel happy!! Perhaps next time we shall have to visit the peasant 'cinema!' Perhaps that will make her happy!"

The two of them walked off as Haruhi looked back and asked, "Kyoya, are you coming?"

Kyoya nodded and responded, "I'll meet up with you later. Just call me wherever you are and I'll meet you."

Haruhi nodded and walked off, wondering what Kyoya was doing.

Kyoya waited until they left and made a short trip to the dress shop.

"Excuse me ma'am, could I please buy that navy blue dress and any other accessories and shoes that the previous customer before was looking at? Just charge it onto my card."

**-x-**

*Squeal!* the story is coming along great!

I noticed that I write a lot about Tatsuya and Itsuko, but not enough about Fuyuko and Shizuo… *sniff sniff* they don't get enough love…

Itsuko is a gigantic meanie. That's the way that I planned for her to be… oh well. I actually have some fun writing her lines. It is harder writing for Tatsuya since he's such a sentimental guy— it sounds a bit strange, but it's actually true.

Please review!! I really do appreciate it!

Thank you very very very very very much! ^_^

**Please note that this is not edited. I would also like to ask for a Beta Editor... anyone who can edit things fast, is good at English and... enjoys reading this story. Please PM me if you would like to. The only requirement is that you must have written a story or is really really really really... good at English and grammar and all that wonderful stuff. :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**To See the World: Chapter 9**

**Well… here it is! **

**My computer crashed, so now I have to write this on my laptop (that I just got)… but I still don't have the original.**

**I'm currently at camp, and I will be for three weeks, so I am trying to fill it out little by little, and I hope that it will be as good as the original!**

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World…**_

_**Kyoya nodded and responded, "I'll meet up with you later. Just call me wherever you are and I'll meet you."**_

_**Haruhi nodded and walked off, wondering what Kyoya was doing.**_

_**Kyoya waited until they left and made a short trip to the dress shop.**_

"_**Excuse me ma'am, could I please buy that navy blue dress and any other accessories and shoes that the previous customer before was looking at? Just charge it onto my card."**_

**-x-**

"What the hell do you think you were doing? Talking to Ootori-sama like that!"

"Itsuko-nee, he's my classmate. I see him every day, and we talk often."

"Well stay away from him. He's mine."

They got home from their shopping trip, Itsuko and the driver walking in with multiple bags in hand.

Tatsuya came downstairs, and saw that Aiko was carrying two bags as well.

"Let me carry that Aiko-chan," He said, "You must be really tired now, trying on all those dresses."

"Well technically, I only tried on one dress, and that was the one that Itsuko wanted me to buy. It's pretty simple looking though, so I hope that it's ok."

Jealous that her no one offered to carry her bags, Itsuko saw Shizuo walking around the hallway and looked at him. "Hey, Nii-san, can you carry my bags for me?" She asked in a cloyingly sweet tone.

"No thanks. Do it yourself." He walked away, leaving an angry Itsuko, silently fuming.

Aiko and Tatsuya made their way upstairs, and Aiko noticed something different about Tatsuya. His hands started shaking while he was holding the bags, and he was silent all the way to the bedroom.

"Tatsuya-nii, are you ok?"

"Yeah," He said in a quiet and shaky tone, "I'm ok."

"You can just give me the bags; my room is just over there."

"No!" He shouted quickly, "I can do it. I'm not incompetent as you think."

"…Ok…" She said hesitantly, walking behind Tatsuya as he walked to her bedroom.

**-x-**

Tatsuya walked back into his room, and stared at the wall.

Then, he walked towards his bed and took something out from under it.

"Thank god I still have it."

**-x-**

Aiko unloaded her clothes and her shoes and put them on.

'_They look really simple, but it's still really pretty.' _Aiko thought, _'I hope that it is adequate for a social.'_

She took the clothes off, put on her casual clothes, and walked to Tatsuya's room.

She knocked on the door. "I'm sorry, Tatsuya-nii, if I offended you, or made you mad."

She stayed by the door, but Tatsuya never came to answer it- or even responded. Lately, Tatsuya had been secluded, and preferred staying in his room, rather than being outside with the family. She assumed that it was because he was tired, and trying to figure out what to do with his mother's offer.

Aiko walked away, and looked down at the floor, not knowing what to do anymore.

**-x-**

Kyoya met up with Tamaki and Haruhi at what Tamaki called a 'Commoner Café'. Then, Haruhi and Tamaki spotted the dress.

"Kyoya, what's that?"

"A dress, Tamaki, you of all people should know what it is."

"But who's it for?"

"That's none of your concern."

Haruhi looked at his eyes, and figured out the answer. "It's for Aiko-san, isn't it?"

"It could be."

"You like her don't you?"

"Whoever said that?"

The room began to darken, and Tamaki was hovering in the corner of the café. Haruhi looked like a detective trying to get the answer out of Kyoya. A spotlight shone on her. "Is it for Aiko-san?"

"You're getting to be so direct, Haruhi."

"Kyoya, who is it for?"

"That's none of your business."

Tamaki looked shocked as something dawned on him, "Mommy, do you enjoy… cross-dressing?!"

"Shut up Tamaki. And no, I am not a crossdresser."

"I thought that you would be like Ranka-san!" He looked at Haruhi when he said that, and she looked at him in an '_are you serious?_' kind of face.

"Shut up Tamaki! And go back to the corner!" She pointed to the dark and dusty corner, and he went straight there.

"It's for Aiko, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"The dress. It's for her, isn't it?"

"That's still none of your business."

Haruhi and Kyoya engaged in an intense staring battle, in which Kyoya was the victor.

Soon the lights came back on and everything was normal, but Haruhi was still staring at the dress.

"Is Aiko-san your girlfriend?"

**-x-**

Aiko stood outside her father's room, and stared at the door.

'_I wonder if Tatsuya really wants to leave…' _she thought.

With that, she ran away from the door and went straight to the car.

**-x-**

"Excuse me. Sensei, do you have some medications under the name, Kazuhiko? My name is Kazuhiko Aiko."

The doctor was looking for the prescription in the back room, while Kyoya with his clipboard was walking through the hallway.

"I didn't know that you came here often, Ootori-san." She lowered her head in respect.

"Yes, I often come for a visit just to see how things are going."

"So your father gave you the medical branch of the Ootori Organization?"

"No, not exactly-- but that doesn't mean that I can't take care of it."

She nodded and smirked. "I didn't know that someone like you would have such a heart to actually do something that you don't have to do."

"But I am—and I do have a heart."

"Really? Could have fooled me." She said, looking at him with a questionable look and her head slightly tilted.

The doctor came out with the medication, "Kazuhiko, Aiko?"

Aiko went back to the front desk and took the medicine. "I don't have a checkup today, do I?"

"I don't think you do, but the medication has been changed."

She frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Well, the results of your examination weren't what the doctors expected. So he changed the medication to something stronger. Your heart isn't functioning as well as they expected it to be."

"Where's Yuki-sensei?" Aiko demanded, "I want to hear this myself."

Yuki-sensei, a relatively young man, popped his head through the door, then said, "I thought I heard Aiko's voice." He came through the door completely. "You have been skipping examinations and checkups lately, it's not healthy."

"I _thought_ that I would be okay if I just stayed away from physical education and running."

"That's what we thought too, but at the way your heart is right now… I would highly recommend asking your father for permission to do surgery when you are finished with high school… perhaps you should consider having surgery before you graduate."

"But--" She was lost for words.

"Look Aiko, I want you to live a long life, and to be happy. Even if it means that we need to perform surgery. I will call your father later this evening to talk about this."

Yuki-sensei started to walk away.

"NO!" She shouted.

He turned around. "Why?"

"You can't tell him… he… he… he…." She was stuttering, "He doesn't know anything."

"You never told him? I told you that this would get you in trouble one day." He reprimanded.

"I never thought it would get this far." she admitted

"And your eating patterns? Has he noticed?"

"…He's never noticed."

"You need to tell him or I will." Yuki-sensei said, in a strict and stern voice. "He needs to know."

He walked away, and Aiko's knees failed as she dropped onto the floor.

The receptionist ran to her and attempted to catch her, but Kyoya caught her instead.

"Matsuzoka," He said, "I will bring her to an empty room, please tell the doctors that I'm using it."

The receptionist nodded, and hurried off.

**-x-**

"_Where am I?" _

She started blinking her eyes. She saw a totally white room, with Kyoya working on his laptop, sitting down in a chair.

She got up, and Kyoya put down his laptop.

"Arigato, Ootori-san, for putting me here. But I need to get home now."

She took the medicine and began walking out, but paused. "Ootori-san? Would you mind not telling anyone about this?"

"This has nothing to do with me."

With that, she gave a weak smile, and walked out the door.

**-x-**

That night, Aiko took her medication, and read the side effects.

"May cause dizziness, fainting…" She continued reading.

"_That's just great."_

She walked outside past the terrace to where the Japanese garden was. She looked at the koi pond and watched the fish swim. She remembered that when she was little, she always like to catch them with her hands. She put her finger in the water and started swirling it in the water while the fish were swimming away. She smiled at the koi and walked away.

"I thought that I would find you here."

She looked back, and saw Tatsuya looking at her with a warm smile on his face.

"Tatsuya-nii, I'm really sorry for the way I acted this afternoon, and before, with father."

"Iie, it's fine. Don't worry about it."

**-x-**

_Fuyuko came to Aiko's room and looked at her, "Aiko-chan," she said in her sweet voice, "What are you doing?"_

"_Just some extra homework, nothing much really."_

"_I heard that Otou-sama is having a discussion with Tatsuya, and it doesn't look very pretty. Why don't you go and help him out, or just be there for him. Father sounds really angry._

_At the sound of hearing her brother's name, she got out of her chair and left for the office._

_**-x-**_

"_Kentaro-sama, I would like to hear your opinion about me staying or leaving."_

"_Tatsuya, whatever you choose is your decision; please do not ask me for my opinion. This has nothing to do with me." He said sternly._

_Aiko was waiting outside the door, quietly listening to the conversation._

_Kentaro stared at his illegitimate son. "You do whatever you want. I have nothing to do with you."_

_Tatsuya knelt down on the floor, "Kentaro-sama, I would like for you to let me go."_

"_NO!" Aiko ran into the room, "You can't leave… not now."_

_Her father stared at her as she was hugging Tatsuya, the person she called her brother._

"_Aiko."_

_She looked up into her father's angry eyes._

"_Leave."_

_She closed her eyes, and bowed, as she and ran away._

**-x-**

"Aiko."

She jumped up in surprise at hearing her name being called.

"I'm sorry for disappointing you."

"_You_ didn't do anything."

"I asked to leave."

"So? If you want to leave, you can leave."

"Aiko," He motioned for her to sit on the bench, "The reason why I want to leave is because I want to see the world."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "You want to… see the world?"

"My mother told me about all the places she has been. If it isn't for piano concerts, or tours, it's for charity work, and world traveling. I always wanted to get out of Japan, and just _do something_ with my life." He said passionately

"You could always leave for college in a different part of the world!" she yelled, her fists by her side, "Does that also qualify for you to 'see the world?'"

"But that's college. I'm still tied to doing schoolwork, and attending school. I want to do something that I love. And that's music. Perhaps by being with my mother, I will be able to find a job or maybe a talent scout will find me."

Aiko looked down at the ground and tried not to cry.

"Just because I'll be apart from you, doesn't mean that we won't email each other or write letters or just talk to each to other. There's a world outside Japan, you know?"

She paused and looked him carefully in the eye. "So you want to see the world?"

He nodded.

She looked up at him and nodded determinedly. "If this is what you want to do, then go ahead. I'll support you one hundred percent!" She gave him thumbs up, and a big smile.

He took her into his arms and hugged her. "I really appreciate everything you have ever done for me; ever since the beginning, you have been here supporting me while everyone else shunned me. Arigato."

She fell onto the floor, on her knees, sobbing, while Fuyuko and Itsuko watched her and watched Tatsuya walk away from the garden.

**-x-**

"You make Aiko-chan cry you know," Itsuko said, "That wasn't very nice."

"I know."

"Tatsuya-san," Fuyuko said, "Why do you want to leave now?"

"I feel like I have overstayed my welcome here."

"You have," Itsuko butted in, "But I think you have been lying to our dear Aiko-chan for a while you know."

"What do you mean?"

"You have been lying to us Tatsuya-san, you have been lying to all of us—isn't that true?" Fuyuko looked at him with a small, yet devious smile.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Itsuko opened her purse and dropped small bags of what looked like to be leaves.

"Are you honestly this stupid? Using the Kazuhiko money for something as trivial, and as stupid as this?"

Tatsuya looked at the floor and quickly grabbed the bags. "What are you doing with these?!"

"Nothing much really... We just found them after the maid asked us what to do with them. The maids are really nice people; with a little _incentive_, they'll do absolutely anything. Even find drugs in your own brother's bedroom. You can thank them for that."

"You should go and tell Aiko-chan," Fuyuko added, "She'll probably still love you all the same. She's so stupid like that. She's actually crying for a brother that isn't even part of our family! You know she still calls you 'Onii-san' as if you are still our brother?"

"You are nothing more than the son of a whore. No matter how elegant you make her sound, she's nothing more than a slut that slept with father. She wasn't worth much to even be his mistress."

Tatsuya cringed at Fuyuko's and Itsuko's words.

"_Those bitches… They have no right to go through my stuff." _He was infuriated with them.

"Have nothing to say?" The girls asked.

"Nothing. Except, when I leave, all I ask is that you take care of Aiko-chan for me, and don't make her life a miserable shithole." He stared at them and the girls were stifling their laughter.

He walked away and went upstairs to his room. Leaving Fuyuko and Itsuko laughing and giggling, like little girls.

**-x-**

Aiko rubbed her tears away, and looked into the pond, seeing a faint reflection of her red eyes and her pink face. She tried taking deep breaths, wishing that her face didn't look as ugly as it did, and that when she went in, no one would notice her.

She walked back into the veranda, and back into the house. Aiko quietly went upstairs, drank some water and took her medication.

"_My heart really hurts right now. Is it pain? Or is it…"_ She couldn't find the answer for it.

She kept on rubbing her chest, hoping that the pain would go away in a few minutes. Aiko changed, and paced around her room, thinking about everything that had happened.

"_Ootori-san. He knows now. Even though he didn't make a big deal out of it, he probably knows."_

As soon as the pain was gone, she crawled into bed and cried herself to sleep.

**-x-**

**Ok… maybe not the best ending, but this is eight pages!!**

**I'm very tired… I'm been trying to work my hardest into this chapter!**

**Many thanks to my new beta: OhMyGoshsickels (she's awesome!!!)**

**I absolutely appreciate it!!!**

**I know that I should have written about the Social… but next time on To See the World… The Social!**


	10. Chapter 10

To See the World: chapter ten

**I'm BACK!!!  
**

**Okay… I know that I've been away for a long while—I didn't really have Microsoft Word (the trial expired), so I didn't have much to write… until now!!**

**Again, many thanks to my beta editor for editing this chapter!**

**Hope everyone's having a happy holiday and a great vacation!**

-x-

_**Last time on **__**To See the World…**_

"_**You are nothing more than the son of a whore. No matter how elegant you make her sound, she's nothing more than a slut that slept with father. She wasn't worth much to even be his mistress."**_

_**Tatsuya cringed at Fuyuko's and Itsuko's words.**_

'_**Those girls…'**_

"_**Have nothing to say?" The girls asked.**_

"_**Nothing except when I leave, all I ask is that you take care of Aiko-chan for me and don't make her life a miserable shithole."**_

----

Aiko rubbed her tears away and looked into the pond, seeing a faint reflection of her red eyes and her pink face. She tried taking deep breaths, wishing that her face didn't look as ugly as it did and when she went in, no one would notice her.

'_**Ootori-san… he knows now. Even though he doesn't make a big deal of it, he probably knows.'**_

**-x-**

The day before the social, Aiko walked to her classroom, plastered a smile on her face, and opened the door.

To everyone else, she looked happy—happier than most days, but inside she was trembling. The fact that someone knew her secret scared her. She wished that he could just forget about it, because the fact that Kyoya knew the truth meant that he could spread it to the world.

Her poor health was one of the biggest flaws of her character. It was a hindrance, an attribute that wasn't needed. She needed to focus on the family corporation and to win the race; winning was all that mattered.

"Kazuhiko-san?"

Aiko glanced up to see her teacher looking at her.

"You are wanted in the nurse's office."

Aiko nodded as she slipped out the door, slipping a couple of pills into her mouth as well.

She thought carefully as she walked down the hallway. _"Could someone have found out? They could most definitely use it as blackmail material. I have to be careful with what I say.'_

She arrived at the Nurse's Office and opened the door, only to see none other but Kyoya Ootori standing before her.

"Hello Kazuhiko-san, how are you this morning?"

"Kyoya-san, what are you doing here?"

"Hmm. I guess you're calling me Kyoya-san now? You must consider us to be on good terms then."

Aiko winced at her mistake, but looked straight into his eyes. _"What is he planning? I shouldn't have made that slip. It figures he would have noticed."_

"Ootori-san," she cleared her throat, "Where is the nurse? Sensei said that she called me down here."

"No she didn't—I did. I'm barrowing the nurse's office for the next fifteen minutes. By that time," he looked at the clock, "I hope to clear out and be done with it."

"_The nurse must work for his father. But isn't it strange for us to be all alone… in this room that no one is going to come into. And fifteen minutes… that's long enough for him too…"_

"Please don't worry Kazuhiko-san," he interrupted her thoughts, "I have no intention of touching you. I just want to ask a few questions and then leave."

She looked up and her face got pink. How could he think that she was thinking about _that_—she deemed it as absolutely disgusting and repulsive, only something that immature teenagers would do.

It is definitely not something that any upper-crust young adult in the rich, aristocratic world, like her, would do.

"So, Ootori-san, what are your questions?"

"The other week, when you came into the hospital, why were you there?"

"I was at the hospital to get a checkup."

"But why at the Ootori Hospital? I believe that the Kazuhiko Industries have their own share of clinics as well."

She was at a loss for words.

"I was there only because I have a family friend that works there, and his father been my doctor since I was a child. His father died approximately three years ago and now his son, my current doctor, has been taking care of me. He has recently been transferred to the Ootori Hospitals."

"Yes… Shiro Kazuma, is it?"

She nodded. "Now," she asked, "May I leave? I have to go back to class."

"As do I."

"Well, unlike you, I find that my classes are extremely important. Oh look, your fifteen minutes are up anyways, so we should go to class." She turned quickly and began walking to the door.

Just as she reached for the handle, Kyoya slammed his hand against the door, blocking all possibility of leaving.

"Don't think this is over, Kazuhiko-san." He said quietly. "We will meet here every Friday at the same time and at the same place. I wish to know more about you."

"Why can't we do this anywhere else? People will get suspicious once they hear about us being here in the Nurse's Office together. This place has many negative connotations to it. I don't wish that my reputation be lower anymore than it already is."

"You shouldn't think about it like that… think about it as a way to get to know me and the Ootori family better. I wish to have a strong connection and alliance with the Kazuhiko Family, and with this bond, both of our families and our companies will get international status."

"So you're saying," Aiko began, "That you want to get to know me better and to 'break the ice' so then you will be able to find a flaw and blackmail me, then threaten and shove a contract in my face. Clever… but it won't work. You're assuming that I'm the future heiress, do not forget that unlike you, I have three other siblings in my family."

"But out of all the siblings in your family," he smiled and continued, "You're the smartest and the most intelligent out of all of them. I'm surprised at how you handle yourself in these kinds of situations and how you present yourself to others in public."

Aiko resisted his charm and tried not to fall into it. Even if what he said was true, she didn't want it all to go into her head so she wouldn't say something stupid.

"Wow Ootori-san," Aiko quickly said, "I'm impressed! You actually managed to be able to speak more than ten words!"

She pried the door opened and left.

**-x-**

_**At the Kazuhiko Estates….**_

"AIKO!!! GET OVER HERE NOW!!!"

Aiko pried herself out of her chair and went to her mother's bedroom.

That woman wasn't _really _her mother, just some new lady that her father managed to impregnate. Her real mother died of a heart disease much like her own, and once she died, her father needed to get a new wife.

And then she came.

Aiko opened the door slowly and asked, "Did you call for me?"

"Yes, I wanted to know whether or not you were doing something important."

Aiko gave her a questioning look and answered, "Yes… I'm currently doing my homework right now."

"Well… that's not important then, is it?"

"Well it depends, Kazumi-san, since we must have different points of view about homework. I find homework very important and it is vital in order to…"

Kazumi interrupted her, "Homework is **not important.** Do you understand?"

Aiko stared at Kazumi and moved her eyes down to Kazumi's large stomach. She said that she was pregnant and was bound to deliver in a few months. Inside her stomach could be the new heir of the Kazuhiko Industries, and all four of them (save for Tatsuya) were upset and nervous.

What if that kid would be the heir? What happened if the four of them were stripped from their father's will and everything would be in the new kid's name? All four Kazuhiko children looked at Kazumi's coming child as if it was some leech that stayed stuck to her stomach.

Aiko closed her eyes and nodded. "I understand perfectly."

"Good. Why don't you help me with some chores—I need to get them done before tonight."

"Couldn't you ask the maids? They can definitely help you."

"No… you see, Aiko, Itsuko and Fuyuko are having a sleepover at the house tonight and I need somewhere for you to go. When I ask you to do chores, I want you to get out of the house and do something with your life; have some fun for once!"

"You mean that means you're asking me to do these 'chores' just so you can have my sisters party all night? Where am I supposed to go?"

"Why don't you go to a friend's house to hang out? You definitely have a lot of friends at school don't you?" She chuckled, then took a deep breath and continued, "Well… I really do have some chores for you, so why don't you finish the chores and then you can go and have some fun. I want you to go the Ootori Hospital and look for Doctor Matsuzaka Hiroki for me? I need you to give him these… forms."

Aiko walked to the table and saw a large envelope and took it. She looked at Kazumi. "This one?"

Kazumi nodded and said, "Make sure you give them to him directly. And don't open it."

Aiko walked down to where are the cars were and asked the driver to drive her to Ootori Hospital.

On the way to the hospital, Aiko looked at the envelope and opened it carefully, making sure not to leave any folds or dents on the paper.

_Hiro—_

_I can only lie to him for so long... What am I going to do? I need more pads. I'll come by to the hospital on Friday to get them. _

_ -Kazuhiko Kazumi_

Aiko's eyes opened wide. Could it be true? There isn't a baby after all?

**-x-**

_**Family flashback…**_

"_So… the Whore is pregnant… what do we do now?" _

"_Itsuko… don't talk like that. Kazumi-san is not a whore." Fuyuko responded. "Besides, you shouldn't be speaking like that."_

"_Well… it is the truth… I bet she's just using us and our family title to get what she wants. I bet that the baby isn't even Otou-san's!"_

_Aiko hesitated; what if someone heard them talking about Kazumi? The maids who are walking around could hear them and say something. Word spreads fast._

_Shizuo looked at the three sisters and began saying, "We should do something. That __**leech**__ could inherit everything if we're not careful. We need to make sure that at all cost, that baby doesn't get anything of ours."_

"_Wow Shizuo, that's the smartest thing you've said in…. oh I don't know… five years or something?"_

"_Itsuko!" Fuyuko reprimanded, "Be nice to your elders!"_

"_I know… I know… Sorry Shizuo. I love you, you do know that right?"_

_Shizuo looked at her with a dazed glance, not caring about what she said._

"_Exactly my point." Itsuko added._

"_Shizuo-nii, perhaps we should attempt to do something to have her __**lose**__ the baby… perhaps then, she will not be able to have any more children in the future and we wouldn't have to worry anymore." Fuyuko asked._

_Aiko looked at Fuyuko, "That's not a bad idea, but if Otou-san finds out or if that lady squeals on us, we're all screwed. We have to do something subtle so we won't be noticed."_

_Shizuo looked at Aiko, "Then what should we do?"_

_Aiko responded, "We do what we do best… we find dirt on her and use it as blackmail material. In the case we find something out that is about the baby… that's even better. We can tell Otou-san or threaten that lady so she will feel guilty and she'll tell him."_

_The three looked at Aiko and nodded. Aiko smiled and left the room, watching the other three going to the computer and looking through the Archives._

**-x-**

Aiko entered through the automatic doors of the Ootori Hospital.

Watching all the people walk by, she went to the Receptionist and asked, "Excuse me, do you know where Matsuzaka Hiroki-sensei is?"

The Receptionist paged him and asked Aiko to sit and wait for the doctor.

As Aiko was sitting down, she noticed Kyoya walking by with his clipboard, probably asking and interrogating doctors. She hoped that he wouldn't see her.

Kyoya turned around and saw Aiko reading a magazine, looking inconspicuous amongst the others sitting at the Waiting Area. Kyoya slowly sauntered to where Aiko was sitting and sat next to her.

"Kazuhiko-san, I didn't expect you to come again today? Is everything all right?"

"I'm fine, Ootori-san, I just need to deliver some papers for my stepmother."

"You have a stepmother?"

"My mother died of heart complications, and after a couple of years, my father remarried and now we have a new mother. She's pregnant now and she wanted me to deliver some papers to her doctor."

"You could just give it to me and I'll put it in the mailbox. You're just wasting your time here waiting for her doctor."

"It's fine… she specifically requested me to wait for him."

"And who's her doctor?"

"Some… Matsuzaka Hiroki. Have you seen him anywhere?"

"Ah…" Kyoya began looking at his clipboard, "I haven't seen him. But I can tell you that Matsuzaka-sensei is not an OBGYN. He's an anesthesiologist, so I do not know what he has to do with caring for your stepmother."

"Is he really? Well… I don't know… She just asked me to give him some forms. I bet she just wants me out of the house so I won't be a bother to her. She kicked me out for the night since my sisters are having some slumber party and they don't want me to be there."

"So where will you be staying?"

"My mother's family owns many apartment complexes, I contacted the manager about half an hour ago asking for one of the suite rooms to be prepared for me. I have clothes with me as well as other accessories. It's not a problem for me to stay at the apartment since I usually do that whenever my parents don't want me in the house, it's practically routine for me."

"Are you that boring for your sisters?"

"No… Well, I guess that I can't 'fit in' with my sisters' kinds of friends. They're all girly and obsessed about looks and boyfriends rather than education and knowledge."

"Shouldn't the perfect person have a balance of both knowledge and beauty?"

"Well then, I guess I'm not the 'perfect person.'"

A man walked up to Aiko and asked, "Are you Kazuhiko Aiko?"

She nodded and asked, "Are you Matsuzaka Hiroki?"

"Hai."

"Ah… Kazumi-san wanted me to give this to you. She says that they're forms and she needs your signature or something…"

"Kazumi-san? Oh wow… thank you very much. I will call her letting her know that I have the forms. Thanks again."

He looked at Kyoya and lowered his head and then walked away.

"Well, I guess I must take my leave now. Thank you for entertaining me Ootori-san, I guess that the Ootori Family can work and entertain. It is the 'perfect combination,' isn't it?"

"Hn."

Aiko lowered her head and walked out, with the automatic doors opening.

Kyoya walked outside with her and asked, "Are you going to the Social tomorrow?"

"Ah yes… it will be my sister Itsuko and me. My sister seems to have a small infatuation with you. She has specifically instructed me not to speak with you tomorrow night."

"Well then, I will have to resist the temptation."

Aiko laughed and smiled before walking into the car.

"Temptation," she whispered to herself, "what an interesting word."

**-x-**

Aiko took her bags and opened the door to her apartment.

It was cozy and very simple, unlike most apartments with busy-patterned carpets and lots of expensive furniture and priceless items—just the way she liked it.

She neatly folded her clothes and put them into drawers, trying to maintain order and neatness in her apartment, unlike the chaos in her house.

She was humming a tune while hanging up her sweaters until the intercom went off.

"Aiko-sama," the receptionist started speaking, "Your sister, Fuyuko-sama, is here to see you."

"Ah… bring her up."

Just a few moments later, Aiko heard a knock on her door and Aiko shouted, "It's open!"

Fuyuko went in and sat down next to Aiko, who was currently sitting on her couch reading her English book for homework.

"How come you're here? Aren't you supposed to get ready for your big slumber party?" Aiko questioned, not putting down the book.

"What slumber party?"

"That Lady said that you and Itsuko-nee are hosting a slumber party and she explicitly said that you both didn't want me in the house… so now I'm here in the apartment and you're supposed to be getting ready for your party."

"There isn't a party. She lied."

"What are you talking about?" she put down her book on the table, "Then why would she want me out?"

"It's true… except that Itsuko and I are going to a slumber party, not hosting one. You can come back to the house, I hate for you to be all alone in here."

"Eh… it's fine. I guess Shizuo might have a party of his own."

"That's the thing… there is no party. Everyone is out. Itsuko and I are going to a party, Shizuo is going clubbing with a bunch of his friends and you're here."

Aiko was about to ask the question _"Where's Tatsuya"_ until she remembered him storming out of the house, going to his apartment to stay. When she asked him why, he ignored her and drove away. All of his things were gone and his room was now empty except for a giant black piano in the middle of his room."

"Otou-san?" Aiko asked, wondering if he was going to be gone.

"He has to prepare for a conference in France, so he's leaving right about now… so that just leaves Her."

"Hm… then what would she be planning…"

"She also mentioned to all the staff with the exception of a few that they have the rest of the day off, so there's practically no one in the house!" Fuyuko exclaimed.

"So you're saying that no one is home, and Kazumi-san kicked me out tonight because she wants the house to herself?"

"Well… we don't know what she's planning, but apparently Otou-san doesn't know anything. He just keeps on saying that we can't leave her alone in the house since she's pregnant and she'll get lonely."

Aiko knew that Fuyuko wanted her to come back to the house so she wouldn't get in trouble. Fuyuko was given the task to keep Kazumi happy and to make sure she wasn't lonely and now Aiko realized that Fuyuko was just giving the job to her."

"No." Aiko clearly stated and picked up her book and continued reading, "I'm definitely not going to talk to that woman. I have no desire to have a conversation with her."

"Aiko… she could be up to something and we wouldn't know, would we?"

"No."

"Aiko-chan…" Fuyuko began saying, "Will you please help your onee-san just this once?"

"I'm sorry Fuyuko-nee, but my mind is set. I'm not leaving… there is no way I'm going to be alone with her."

Fuyuko stood up and walked herself to the door. Before she closed it, she looked at Aiko and said, "You know something? I thought you actually _worth_ something… we were taught to care and listen to our elders, but you're just a stubborn little bitch who refuses and is reluctant to listen to anybody!"

She slammed the door.

Aiko looked up from her book, "Oh, she left already? Thank god!"

**-x-**

A few hours later, after eating dinner (that she had cooked herself) and taken her pills, she continued to complete her homework.

"Ah… I forgot my math textbook and my science book!" She muttered to herself.

She looked at the clock which said 7:30pm and then looked at the window. She wondered if her father had departed yet from his flight, if her sisters were having fun drinking and have people paint their nails, if her brother was dancing and making out with other rich girls…

… But most of all, she wondered about Tatsuya.

He wouldn't answer her calls or her emails. She tried contacting him in every way possible but nothing worked. No one knew where he was and he kept it like that. He wanted no more attachments to the Kazuhiko family.

What Aiko wondered was why he didn't want to be part of the family.

Aiko then looked at her homework on her laptop and started editing her essay again, but this time she couldn't focus. What if Kazumi invited some stranger over to the house? What if that doctor came over to see Kazumi?

"I can't do any more homework," she started muttering to herself, "I can't focus like this."

She went to her closet and put on her coat and walked out the door.

**-x-**

Aiko took a deep breath and looked around. This is what city life at night was like: bright, filled with lights, crowded streets—the entire atmosphere of it was completely different than what her normal life was like.

She put her hands in her coat pockets and started walking down the streets, watching people line up at clubs and couples eating at restaurants, teenagers heading down to Love Hotels. It was different than what aristocratic life was like, and Aiko loved it.

All her life, she had to watch city life through the windows in the car—only getting a passing glance at the people and places, but now she got to see it all.

Aiko walked to the park that wasn't far from her apartment and took a seat down at a bench. She took out her cell phone out and called her driver.

"I forgot some things back at the house, can you come and pick me up?"

**-x-**

When Aiko got home, she slowly opened the door and saw the entire house lit up but completely empty. She walked up the stairs until she heard a woman's voice.

"_Ah… Hiro!"_

"_Ahh…."_

Aiko looked around and figured out the sound was coming from… the master bedroom.

She looked through a crack on the door and saw Kazumi and Hiro, the doctor she had just met this afternoon, on the bed, and Kazumi on top of Hiro.

"Oh my god."

"Aiko! You… came home so soon? Aren't you supposed to be at that… slumber party?"

"No, that's Fuyuko and Itsuko. I just forgot some books, as well as my dress for tomorrow's Social and I need to pick them up."

"Ah… well… you can go now right?"

Aiko nodded and turned around, hearing the two continue what they were doing.

'_She isn't pregnant… she was completely faking it!'_ Aiko began thinking, _'that's the only way she can stay and be a member of our family!'_

**-x-**

**OKAY. THIS CHAPTER IS GETTING WAY TOO LONG. **

**According to Word, this is about 12 pages. I know I promised to write about the Social… well… I lied. **

**Sudden development: we meet Kazumi, the newest addition to the Kazuhiko Family, yet although people believe that she's pregnant, Aiko discovers the truth. We also find out that Kyoya wants to know more about Aiko and now they will be having secret rendezvous?? **

**NEXT CHAPTER: THE SOCIAL!!! **


	11. Chapter 11

**To See the World chapter 11**

**Okay…. So I have free time right now (due to my long vacation break), so I will start writing the next chapter! I'm so happy that everyone loves my story and that chapter (yes, it was weird for Aiko to see… that…).**

**Thanks for the reviews and the story alerts! I really do appreciate it!**

**Kudos to my beta for editing this chapter! I appreciate the fact that emailed it yesterday and she got it to me today... and it's 12 pages. :D **

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World…**_

"_**Ah… Hiro!"**_

"_**Ahh…."**_

_**Aiko looked around and figured out the sound was coming from… the master bedroom.**_

_**She looked through a crack on the door and saw Kazumi and Hiro, the doctor she had just met this afternoon, on the bed, and Kazumi on top of Hiro.**_

"_**Oh my god."**_

"_**Aiko! You… came home so soon? Aren't you supposed to be at that… slumber party?"  
**_

"_**No, that's Fuyuko and Itsuko. I just forgot some books, as well as my dress for tomorrow's Social and I need to pick them up."**_

"_**Ah… well… you can go now right?"**_

_**Aiko nodded and turned around, hearing the two continue what they were doing.**_

'_**She isn't pregnant… she was completely faking it!'**__** Aiko began thinking, **__**'that's the only way she can stay and be a member of our family!'**_

**-x-**

Aiko quickly went and got her things and ran back to the car.

"Driver, please drive to my apartment… quickly!"

Aiko quickly reached for her cell phone in her pocket and called Fuyuko.

"_Hello?"_

"Ne… Fuyuko-nee, this is Aiko."

"_Aiko? What's up?"_

"I know the truth about Kazumi."

"_You do? That's great! Shizuo and I found out some information this afternoon… tomorrow when we all come back to the house, we'll have a little meeting. This is exciting!"_

"Yeah. Have fun at your slumber party."

"_Okay! See you tomorrow Aiko-chan!"_

Aiko shut off her phone and looked at her dress for the social. She kept on trying to convince herself that she would look pretty and amazing in the dress, yet she knew that Itsuko would just out shine her in everything.

When she got to her apartment, Aiko quickly put all her things away and jumped into her bed.

Everything was a blur. There were just way too many things going on.

**-x-**

The next morning she got up and looked at her homework with disdain. She had no inclination of doing her homework, so she made breakfast for herself and got ready to leave the apartment to go back to the house where she would meet up with the rest of her siblings.

"_I'm really nervous."_ She thought, looking at the dress that was hung up on her door, _"It doesn't look appropriate for something like an Ootori Social. Nevertheless, I must manage to keep my image. Maybe there are others who will be dressed like me."_

She knew that there wouldn't be people like her—so why did she keep on trying to convince herself that there were?

**-x-**

She got home, curious about what would happen at the emergency sibling meeting. When Aiko entered the room she met Shizuo, Fuyuko and Itsuko's hungry stares. Fuyuko gestured for her to sit down next to her.

"Aiko-chan, you called me yesterday," Fuyuko began by saying, "What did you want to tell us?"

Aiko opened her bag, got her blackberry phone and went to her pictures file. There was the picture of the letter that she delivered to 'Hiro-sensei' the other day.

"Yesterday Kazumi wanted me to personally deliver a letter to a man named Matsuzaka Hiroki. It said that she needed more pregnancy pads as well as saying that she wanted to meet him again. In other words, there is no baby; she was faking it the entire time. She also submitted some adoption forms," she pointed to the next few pictures, "most likely since when she 'delivers the baby,' she needs a baby to actually use."

All three of her siblings looked at her with wide eyes—how could the youngest of the family put the pieces of this puzzle together? To them, she was the vulnerable one, the one who could be used as a marionette for the older siblings.

If she could get this kind of information, who knew what other kind of dirt she would have on them.

Aiko looked at them and cocked her head slightly to the side, trying to piece together why everyone was staring at her.

She figured it out.

Which meant that the one time she actually spoke, she had said the wrong thing.

'_Damn it.'_

**-x-**

Aiko returned to her room and took another pill. She heard one of the doors near her room open and saw Itsuko walking downstairs with her dress, going out.

"Otou-san, I'm going out to get my hair and makeup done for the Social tonight! I'll be back soon!"

Everyone could hear her voice echoing throughout the hallways. Aiko closed her eyes. Itsuko was always like that. Out of everyone in the family, she was the most bubbly and cheerful; what no one really knew was that she was also conniving and power thirsty.

There was always a shady ulterior motive behind all of those bright smiles.

Aiko closed her bedroom door and began to rhythmically brush her hair.

'_Even though I know I'm not going to be as pretty as Itsuko, I still need to look presentable…'_

She finally decided to wear in a semi-messy bun. She had no patience to go to professionals as they would take hours and hours just for one thing. She never liked these sort of formal gatherings where rich people would congregate and act all snobbish- it wasn't like her.

She heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Fuyuko walked in with a hair straightener and a container with makeup.

"Let's give you a makeover!"

Aiko looked at the mirror and then looked at Fuyuko.

"Um, how long will this take Fuyuko-nee?"

**-x-**

In a function room not far from the Ootori hospital, there were several decorators setting up tables, checking final touches, and setting up the stage.

The new wing was for long-term sick patients who needed constant care in the hospital. There was also a large room added to the hospital where there would be conferences and meetings for doctors working in the hospital as well as outside the country. The Ootori hospitals were well known internationally and every year, doctors from around the world would all congregate to the Ootori hospitals, as they always had state of the art equipment as well as the best doctors.

Tonight was the opening of the new wing. The first part of the Social was the cutting of the ribbon as well as the official opening, which was letting people go around the new wing and see all the new rooms. The second part would take place in the function room that was separate from the hospital but still Ootori property. The walls were decorated with pictures of the beginning and middle stages of construction, as well as multiple digital picture frames of blueprints and other assorted photos.

Kyoya's father put him in charge of overseeing this Social, and Kyoya made sure that it would be the best. He had scheduled and overseen all activities regarding what would happen tonight. He looked at the room with a self-satisfied smirk. Just last month it had been an empty room with conference tables and now it was a room lit with sparkling lights with a dance floor and a small cocktail bar in the corner.

He looked at the clock. The Social began at 7:00 pm and it was currently 2:00 pm. He thought about the dress that was still in his room hung with the rest of his clothes. He had picked it up from the tailor's place just two days ago, and called to have a professional hairstylist and makeup artist come tonight.

If he was going to have a date for a special occasion, it was going to be a very fashionable and classy one.

**-x-**

"This color goes great with your dress, and it makes your eyes look bigger and beautiful! Let's put this color on…" Fuyuko applied the powdery eye shadow to Aiko.

It had been two hours since Fuyuko finally deemed her hair and nails finished, and now she was on to her face. She knew she didn't have the most beautiful face like Fuyuko, who was once a pageant princess when she was younger, and was currently the Miss Japan Princess of the year. Neither did she have the bubbly features like Itsuko. Really, she always believed that out of the three sisters, she had the plainest face. There was nothing special to look at, therefore, no one really bothered to talk to her.

That's why she always felt bad for any makeup artist, who always spent most of their time just trying to figure out what to do with her face. She never intended to pain them. And now she was paining Fuyuko.

"Fuyuko-nee… you don't have to do this if you don't want to."

She shook her head. "I want to do this… You're not as lavish as Itsuko, but I don't want you to go to the Social as you would go to school. This is different; this is supposed to be a special occasion for you! You're finally becoming a socialite!"

"Socialite? I really wouldn't call it that… it's more like of a…" she was at a loss for words. She always read on the Internet on how socialites went out every night and danced and drank the night away, as well as always getting into trouble. She didn't want to associate herself with those kinds of people.

"There! I'm finally done… take a look Aiko-chan!"

Aiko looked at Fuyuko—and her smile was one of glee and accomplishment.

"Look!!"

Aiko finally looked at the mirror.

"I know that I've never exactly done other people's makeup before… but I tried to do some at the slumber party the other night, I was hooked. It was so much fun!"

Aiko was at a loss for words.

"Ne… Aiko-chan… Say something!"

"I… like it."

Fuyuko jumped up and laughed. "I'm glad you like it!" She quickly packed up her things and left.

Aiko looked at her face. She looked like all the girls at Lobelia, with big dark eyes and lots of eyeliner. Everyday she had went to that school, and everyday she had thought that all those girls looked exactly the same.

She thought that if she left Lobelia, she wouldn't have to deal with this. She looked into the mirror and saw someone else… her former self—the self that she was still trying to run away from.

She took a tissue and began wiping off some of the eyeliner.

**-x-**

"I'm back!!"

Itsuko ran up the stairs to Fuyuko's room to show off her new look.

"You like?"

All over the house, you could hear their screams and giggles.

Shizuo got out of his room and walked into Fuyuko's.

"Ah. You're back."

"Of course I'm back! I just went to the hairdresser's and I went to get my makeup done! I need to look good for tonight!"

Shizuo looked at her and raised one eyebrow. "You got a date?"

Itsuko pouted. "Not yet anyways. Just wait until I snatch Ootori Kyoya tonight with my beautiful dress and face. All the girls will be jealous of me." She smirked, unaware of her snobbish air.

"Hm. Good luck with that." He walked back and raised his hand, signifying his leaving.

"I can't believe Shizuo-nii-san- he has such little confidence in my abilities!"

"Well… It's believed that Ootori Kyoya likes smart and pretty girls," Fuyuko began, "And Shizuo just saying…"

"Shizuo thinks I'm not smart?" Itsuko interrupted, "Is that what he thinks?"

"Well… It's not that you aren't smart. It's just that you and Aiko are in the same grade…"

"She skipped a grade."

"And you…" Fuyuko added, leaving the statement open for Itsuko to finish.

"Stayed back one." Itsuko muttered.

"Right. You see? That's what happens when you spend half a year traveling and shopping around the world and don't even bother making up the work and refusing to go to summer school."

"Summer school is for commoners!"

"But you needed it! Now you're a year behind and with Aiko!"

"And what about you?" Itsuko questioned, "You stayed back too!"

Fuyuko flushed and Itsuko avoided looking at her sister after she realized that she said the wrong thing.

"Fuyuko… I'm sorry."

"Leave." Fuyuko pointed at the door. "I'm tired… I think I'm going to take a nap."

Itsuko left and Fuyuko shut the door.

**-x-**

It was five thirty in the evening and Aiko took her pill. The medication really strained her body but her doctor advised her to take it on time otherwise the symptoms would be worse.

"Aiko-chan!!" Itsuko screamed, "It's time to go! We don't want to be late! The ribbon cutting will start soon!"

Aiko came downstairs and looked at Itsuko.

Itsuko was wearing a dark purple strapless gown that flattered her figure with diamonds sown into multiple areas of her dress. With the dress she wore strappy purple shoes with crystals on the straps and some earrings and a necklace.

"Not too shabby right?"

Aiko nodded, admiring her sister's taste.

"Well… I know you like my dress and style, but we don't want to be late!"

**-x-**

Both Itsuko and Aiko arrived at the hospital promptly at six and were able to hear Kyoya's father speak.

"We are proud to announce the opening of our new wing! We are very happy," he gestured to his family who were all standing behind him, "to welcome you all to explore our new wing and to be present here for the ribbon cutting ceremony."

The rest was all a blur to her.

She saw Kyoya in the front standing behind him and tilted her head so she could see his face better.

Kyoya noticed and smirked in her direction. Aiko's eyes widened in surprise.

"_How could he have noticed me?"_ She wondered.

Itsuko, seeing their little exchange, grabbed Aiko's arm firmly and whispered, "Did you see that? He smiled at me… he so wants me." She added.

"I am very happy to have worked with the Suoh family, having them provide us the wonderful construction workers and contractors who built this wing…" He gestured Tamaki and his family.

Aiko's eyes widened again when she saw Tamaki and his family standing behind Kyoya's father as well. Tamaki saw Aiko and smiled.

'_Well… this is going to be a very interesting night!"_

**-x-**

After the ribbon cutting and the much applause, everyone headed over to the function hall.

Aiko and Itsuko got out of the car, Itsuko came out of the car first, with the limo driver helping her out of the car and walking her to the door. Aiko just slid over to the open door and walked herself.

She entered the function hall and saw the room all lit up with the giant chandeliers and the walls donned with blueprints and pictures.

"Did you see that?"

"That must the youngest Kazuhiko girl…"

"I heard that she was the crazy one of the four."

All the murmuring of the old women and men who stared at her was suffocating. She smiled and walked over to one of the old women.

"Oyashiro-sama, good evening."

"Ah… Itsuko-san, good evening to you too." The young woman replied, not knowing her name.

"My apologies. I am Kazuhiko Aiko, Itsuko's sister."

"Ah…"

"I hear that the weather in Hokkaido is getting chilly and that road conditions are getting worse. However, I'm glad that you haven't missed this event! It's a great achievement for the Ootori Industry."

"Ah yes."

"Thank you very much for all the support you have given our multiple businesses. With your contribution, the Kazuhiko Industry has done very well even through these hard times."

Aiko bowed and then left the circle.

"How did she know that Oyashiro-san lives in Hokkaido?"

"I think her father told her… but that Kentaro is such a stoic man!"

"I know! It's surprising that a stoic man can have such a polite daughter!

The murmuring continued and Aiko grinned. She definitely showed them.

She headed toward the food table where she reached for a cracker with cheese. A waiter came with a tray of champagne, and offered Aiko some.

"No thank you, I don't drink alcohol." The waiter nodded and moved to the next group of people.

She looked at Itsuko who was smiling and laughing in the corner with a bunch of her friends. She held a glass of champagne with one hand and took and quick sip of it. She always seemed to look so happy, Aiko noted with a tad of envy.

"Are you sure you don't want anything to drink?"

"Yes I'm sure, please stop…" she turned around.

Right behind her was Ootori Kyoya with two drinks in his hand.

Aiko laughed. "I thought I told you to stay away from me. Now you're offering me drinks?"

"Well, it's my job, since I'm your date."

Aiko's eyes widened.

He stopped for a moment to adjust his glasses. "Judging by your face and your expression, the idea makes you pretty upset."

"No!" She shook her head furiously, "I'm not."

"Well then," He touched a lock of her hair, "you will be my date."

She blinked her eyes several times and then looked at Kyoya again. "I thought it was a joke."

"Why would a gentleman joke around about a date?" He offered her the drink again.

"Well. I can't be anyways." She said a bit flustered. "I promised my sister that I wouldn't talk to you anymore. Besides, she looks pretty. Ask her to be your date—I have no problem with it."

He smirked.

"Why are you smirking?"

"I have a surprise for you." He took her wrist and pulled her gently amongst the crowd, trying to avoid bumping into people and moving into a small staircase.

"This is a staircase that the workers use when going up and down the stairs."

"I've noticed that, thanks for telling me. It's really impolite to--"

He interrupted her. "I have a surprise."

"This is really childish. If you think you can play around with me in this sort of place you're completely mistaken."

"On the contrary, it's not that childish."

He moved to walk in front of her. "Take my hand."

He reached out to take her hand and held it gently, not crushing her slender fingers. He slowly led her upstairs to a lit up room.

"Here's the surprise… Is it to your liking?"

She opened her eyes to see a familiar looking navy blue dress.

"It looks like the one that I wanted…" she put her hands on her mouth in surprise. "You actually bought it?"

He nodded. "That brown thing you're wearing is a monstrosity."

She laughed. "There's a reason why it was on the sale section of the store."

"Try on the dress, I'll be waiting outside."

She waited to undress until she knew Kyoya had locked the door.

As she attempted to zip up the new dress, someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"I'm the makeup artist. The hair stylist is here with me too, Kazuhiko-san."

"_There's a makeup artist and a hair stylist?"_

When Aiko didn't respond. The woman added, "Kyoya-san asked us to come and help you."

She slowly opened the door, making sure Kyoya didn't see her with her half-zipped dress. The two women walked in and began prepping and setting up.

It was all a blur to her. One minute she was zipping up her dress and the next moment there was someone who was putting on foundation and eye shadow to curling irons and hairspray.

Within thirty minutes, Aiko opened her eyes and saw a different person; a rich, aristocratic young woman making her first step out to society.

She put on her shoes and opened the door, and saw Kyoya standing outside the door, hands in his pocket.

"Did you wait long?"

Kyoya looked at her. She looked… perfect. Of course, he couldn't admit that to her as that would be like admitting defeat—but…

"You look beautiful."

"Why thank you very much, Kyoya-san, I didn't know that the dress would actually fit me."

"It looked a bit big for someone of your physique, so I had it adjusted and tailored. Yuzuha-san helped me with the adjustments. All she had to do was to see a picture of you and she immediately knew how to fix the dress. She also made little simple additions."

"Yuzuha-san… you mean Hitachiin Yuzuha—the famous fashion designer?"

"Well, she designed the dress…"

Aiko blushed. "Ah. Thank you very much Kyoya-san, I really do appreciate it." She began walking away when Kyoya abruptly walked and grabbed her wrist.

"You think that you can just leave after all that I just did for you?"

She froze and looked down to the ground, then turned her head and looked at Kyoya who had a firm stare.

"You're right. That was horrible of me, I'm sorry."

Kyoya let go of her wrist which had turned red from his grasp, Aiko's eyes widened and Kyoya brought the wrist up to his lips and kissed it.

"I'm sorry." He murmured.

"It's nothing."

He leaned closer to her and whispered, "We should get going. They'll be announcing my family soon."

He held her hand and they walked together, side-by-side to the entrance where his family was.

"Everyone, this is Kazuhiko Aiko, my date for tonight."

Aiko walked up to Ootori Yoshio and lowered her head. "Ootori-san, thank you for inviting me and my sister to this event; it is definitely a pleasure to see the new wing of the hospital. My father sends his regards and apologizes for not being able to show up tonight."

He looked at her and then turned around, facing in her opposite direction.

Aiko remained frozen in a bowed position until Kyoya touched her shoulders lightly and whispered in her ear, "Don't mind him. He's just in a bad mood…"

She straightened herself and nodded, and walked back with Kyoya.

**-x-**

"Ladies and gentlemen, we present the Ootori Family!"

The Ootori family came forward and entered the room, and Kyoya put his arm around Aiko's waist.

"You're included in this as well, so you can walk with us," He assured to her.

They walked through the hall and Aiko looked around the room, trying to avoid her sister.

"Is that your sister?" Kyoya whispered, pointing at the jovial girl holding a fresh glass of champagne.

She nodded.

"Well then, let's enjoy this night shall we?" He tightened his grasp on her waist.

**-x-**

**So here it is! It is pretty long…. I was really busy with Chinese New Year, school, homework and life itself.**

**I think I'm becoming a workaholic…. I'm not sure if that's a good thing.**

**So you know the drill: read and review!**

**Quick note from beta: Sob. 12 pages. Really pwntastical, your amazing, I can barely write 8 pages. Beta-ing these long chapters make my fingers numb. T.T Lol.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Okay… So I realized that I have some free time, so I should start continuing my story. I think that I am so weird, trying to write three stories at once… and one of them is just a project that I'm trying to still figure out.**

**I appreciate everything that my awesome beta has done for me—editing my chapters is not an easy feat! **** (especially with this chapter… there were so many errors! :D)**

**So here it is everyone! Chapter 12! Enjoy and review!**

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World…**_

"_**Is that your sister?" Kyoya whispered, pointing at the jovial girl holding a fresh glass of champagne.**_

_**She nodded.**_

"_**Well then, let's enjoy this night shall we?" He tightened his grasp on her waist.**_

**-x-**

She couldn't believe what was going on.

Here she was, walking with the Ootori family; and with Ootori Kyoya right next to her!

"Let's go this way," Kyoya whispered in her ear, "let's see if your sister sees us."

"Are you kidding?" She retorted, "That's the worst idea I've ever heard! She'll kill me after the social!"

"Not if I'm here protecting you. Besides, Tamaki is over in that corner talking to Honey and Mori. Let's just see if she _sees _us, I have no intention of talking to her."

They started walking over to where Tamaki was, Kyoya keeping his hand on her waist. Itsuko finally spotted them, and then furiously stuck out her bottom lip, glaring.

"Ah… I knew she would get mad!"

"And did you ever notice how ugly she looks when she's pouting? Her makeup wrinkles when she does that. She must be pretty unattractive without makeup."

"That's what _you_ think. _I_ look bad without makeup."

"On the contrary, I like you without makeup. You look more natural like that…"

"Right. Keep on believing that." She smirked and then smiled when Tamaki looked over.

"Suoh-san, Honey-san, Mori-san." She lowered her head at each one of them in respect.

"Aiko-chan!" Tamaki grinned at her. "You look beautiful!"

"Thanks… where's Fujioka-san?" She looked around.

"She… couldn't come." Tamaki looked terribly downcast at the thought, "My father doesn't exactly accept our… friendship."

"Ah. My apologies."

"No—not at all! Would you like to talk to her now?" He took out his cell phone and gave it to her. "I have her on my speed dial!" He grinned his ever-present grin again.

"Ah, perhaps later, maybe after the party? I don't think that she could be able to hear me with all the noise going on in the room."

"That's so true! Aiko-chan, you are so smart!"

She looked at Kyoya who smiled at her in return.

"Sure. I'm… smart." She laughed.

"Ai-chan!" Honey shouted, "You should come to the Host Club more often! I want to eat strawberries with you again!"

Aiko looked around and then looked down where she saw Honey smiling and waving.

She smiled at Honey. "Sure, any time!"

Kyoya touched her shoulder and smiled. "It would be great if you showed up at the Host Club more often."

Aiko looked behind her and saw a girl in a pink dress with long hair near the food table.

"I'll be right back…" she looked at the three men and then looked at Kyoya. "I just want to talk to someone."

She took her leave and walked to the food table where the girl was sipping her champagne.

"Excuse me, you look really familiar." Aiko said to the girl before looking at her face.

"Hm?" The girl looked at her. "Aiko-chan! It's so nice to see you!"

"Rika-senpai? I didn't know that you came to these things."

She nodded. "I normally don't, but my parents said that it would be good to go… and here I am!"

Aiko noticed that Rika kept on looking in the corner, watching Mori's face. She smiled.

"Would you like to come with me? I was just over there talking to everyone."

"Oh… I couldn't. It would be imposing."

"It's no problem. You're my friend, so it's okay." Aiko took her wrist and pulled Rika through the crowds.

"Everyone," Aiko said, "I would like to introduce Watanabe Rika She's the president of the Orchestra Club."

"Ah! It's Ri-chan!" Tamaki smiled, "The one we talked to about having for our ball!"

Rika nodded, "It's great to see you again, Tamaki-san."

Rika looked at Mori and lowered her head, blushing. He returned the gesture.

"Rika-chan!" Honey shouted.

"Honey-san, it's great to see you again."

"You should come to the Host Club too! I don't think you've ever come before!"

She laughed. "I don't… usually go to those sorts of things."

"We invited Ai-chan to come, you should come too!" Honey smiled and laughed.

She looked at Mori. "You should come and visit Watanabe-san." He intoned.

She smiled. "Well… if you guys are inviting me…" she looked at everyone, "I guess I should come!"

Aiko laughed and smiled. She hugged Rika. "Isn't this exciting? We can go to the Host Club!"

**-x-**

The entire night went by so quickly, everything was a total blur for her. All she remembered was Kyoya by her side, hand on her waist.

She sat on her bed that night, looking at the dress hanging on the wall by her closet. She closed her eyes and remembered everything that happened. Kyoya holding hands with her, Kyoya's hand on her waist, Kyoya whispering in her ear… she never wanted it to end.

She remembered his touch and his words—everything.

An angry Itsuko stomped on by to Aiko's room, pouting and staring straight into her eyes.

"What the hell did you just do Aiko?"

She got out of her bed and stood up, her perfect moment ruined by Itsuko's irritation. "I didn't do anything."

"You…" she pointed at Aiko, "You're such a slut! Thinking that you can date Kyoya-kun and holding hands with him- acting all lovey-dovey! Have you forgotten your mission?" She started laughing. "Yes, your assignment…"

Aiko's eyes widened. How could she forget?

"See! See!" She pointed at her again, hands shaking and eyes wide. "You forgot! So get your grubby hands off of Kyoya-kun and finish what you need to finish." Itsuko turned around quickly and stomped off back into her room.

Aiko looked at the dress once more and then stuffed it into the closet. She couldn't bear to look at it anymore.

**-x-**

For the whole week, Aiko ignored Kyoya, looking away whenever she made eye contact with him or vice versa and stayed away from the Host Club.

On Friday, the teacher pulled her aside, saying that the nurse wanted to see her. She nodded and stepped out of the classroom.

How could she bear to see him again? After ignoring him for the past four days, she couldn't let all that hard work go to waste. It was hard whenever she saw him, his smile, his eyes, his gestures… it was all too much for her.

She opened the door.

"Aiko-san." Kyoya said, sitting at the nurse's desk. "How come you're here?"

"I thought you wanted me to come. I believed the deal was that every Friday, we are to meet in the nurse's office."

"Hn."

She sat down on the one of the beds. "So… why am I here?"

"I don't know."

"Well then," she stood up, ready to leave, "I can go now right?"

She walked to the door where a hand stopped her from leaving. "No."

"Then I must be here for something!" She shouted at him, irritated.

"I never knew that you had an expression like that." He raised his cell phone and took a picture.

"It's very… unladylike."

She groaned. "Delete it!"

"I don't think so." He saved it and put the phone back into his jacket pocket, "I think that it can be useful."

"Oh please. You're going to blackmail me? I thought that we already had discussed this multiple times. It won't work."

"Is that so?" He mumbled to himself, walking to one of the beds. "Sit down." He patted the bed, gesturing for her to sit down.

"I think I'll stand instead." She said shortly.

"Suit yourself."

"So now that we've made introductions… what am I here for?"

"You enjoy beating around the bush don't you Aiko-san."

"What do you mean?"

"You've been avoiding me for the past four days and you are trying to do that now. Are you avoiding the fact that you were my date for the Social? If I recall… you had a very good time that night talking with everyone. There should be no reason for you to hate me—I didn't hurt you."

She blushed and looked away. He had such a truthful gaze in his eyes, and she couldn't bear it.

"This…" she stuttered, "It's very unlike you Ootori-san. How uncharacteristic of you to question these sorts of things"

"It's very unlike you not to answer questions."

She looked up at him again and saw the same gaze. "You aren't my father or my brother, so I don't need to answer these unnecessary questions."

"So just because I'm not your relative, you don't need to respect me?"

She bit lip, angry. "Where did you get that from? I just said that I don't want to answer the question. I never insulted you or disrespected you."

She took a deep breath and spoke again. "Listen… that night… it was a mistake. I did have fun, but I realized that I really don't like you as much you thought I did. I'm sorry. Good bye." She turned around abrubtly and walked out the door.

**-x-**

"Aiko-san… you missed a wonderful time in the Host Club yesterday! Honey-san, Mori-san and I ate strawberries and cake!" She smiled and looked at Aiko. "Were you busy?"

Aiko was sitting down at a lunch table by herself in the corner of the room, eating and reading a book. She looked at Rika and shut the book. "Yesterday? I had a fencing competition. I had to leave right after school ended.

"I see… Then you must come next week. Yesterday, I had no idea what to do at a Host Club!"

"I'm sorry… but I've only been once, and it was a mistake since I went into the wrong room. I'm afraid I can't be of much help. Besides, if I remember you correctly, weren't you one of those people that looked down on the Host Club, and never wanted to go?"

Rika laughed. "You're right… but I didn't want to ignore their invitation, so I decided to go."

"Hm…" Aiko looked at her food and played around with it, "Perhaps I'll go another day. I think that I need to practice my viola a bit more so I don't fail miserably at the upcoming charity concert."

Rika laughed. "I'm sure that you'll do fine! Just make sure that you don't overwork yourself!"

Rika stood up and left, heading back to her classroom.

Aiko looked at her full tray of food and tossed it out. "How come whenever I want to ignore something, people always have to talk about it?" She mumbled.

Kyoya stood up as he saw Aiko leaving. He was obviously itching to say something.

"Kyoya, why are you standing up?" Hikaru and Kaoru asked curiously.

"It's nothing… nothing at all." He sat down again, feigning confidence, and continued eating.

Tamaki looked back at where Kyouya had been looking and saw a girl with long black hair walking back to her classroom.

**-x-**

Aiko walked outside to the gardens and sat at the gazebo. She took out her cell phone from her pocket and stared at her recent call list.

She started searching through the list. _'Father… Itsuko… Fuyuko… the main house… where is it?'_

She finally found it.

'_Who called me?'_

It was a different number, yet, it looked extremely familiar.

She called it.

Aiko sighed, not getting any response. She checked her voicemail, noticing that she had an unread message.

She waited for her voicemail to come, and she heard the message:

'_**Hey Aiko… it's me. I need help. I need… I want… Come. Come and see me.'**_

Her eyes widened. It couldn't be.

Behind the gazebo was a tall man watching her.

"I found her."

**-x-**

During math class, Aiko received a text message.

'_**You there?'**_

She stared at her phone and then at the teacher. She put the phone away only to receive another text.

'_**So sorry for texting you now… But I have to see you. When can I see you?'**_

Aiko raised her hand and asked to go to the bathroom. She quickly left the classroom and walked down the hallway. She received another text.

'_**Meet me at the park that we used to play in when we were younger. I'll see you at five p.m.'**_

She looked around nervously, hoping no one saw her and then responded to the text.

'**See you soon.'**

She started thinking—what if this person wasn't him? What if it was some random person who has been texting the wrong person?

She walked into the bathroom, completely unaware of the person right behind her.

**-x-**

That night, Aiko went to the park and sat on the swings, and started swinging and moving her feet in the sand.

She remembered when she was younger and she wasn't worried about anything, and everything was taken care of for her. She missed being a child again. Now that she was a young adult, all the responsibility and honor of being part of a famous and rich family all came upon her. She had to uphold the family traditions and follow in the footsteps of the generations before her.

Inside her smiling visage was a deep hatred that was brewing inside of her. She hated lying to everyone, trying to impress people with her extensive and impressive intelligence and knowledge and complimenting even the worst people in order to shove a contract into their faces. It wasn't the way she worked; it wasn't the way she wanted the industry to keep moving. She felt as if she was not only lying to those people, but she was lying to herself.

A man walked over to her and sat by the next swing.

"Aiko-chan?"

She looked to her right. There was Tatsuya, smiling and grinning at her. She jumped to hug him.

"There you are! How come you left? Weren't you supposed to be with Ayumi-san?" All the questions flooded out of her mouth, leaving no chance for him to respond.

He chuckled. "Glad to see that someone missed me."

She let go and sat back at the swing. "So what's up? How come all of a sudden you pop out into society after leaving for such a long time?"

Tatsuya looked around, clenching and unclenching his hand squeamishly. "Well, I wanted to see my one and only youngest half-sister!"

Aiko looked at him. "What's wrong? You okay?"

He looked around again. "I'm fine… but I'm actually here for something."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't exactly come to chat with you. I need help, serious help, and I think you're the only one who can help me."

She frowned, worried. "I can't really help you, but I can try."

"Look. In the past month or so that I've been away, I've been in a bunch of trouble; namely financial troubles. Okaa-san can't really help me in that department."

"Where is she?"

"She's… in Germany right now, performing with an orchestra."

"And aren't you supposed to be with her?"

He shook his head. "I couldn't leave—I just couldn't bring myself to actually leave Japan. It was too much."

"So where are you living now?" she asked, trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

"I'm living at a friend's house, and I have to pay up the rent."

"So how much does that cost?"

"I need about five million yen."

She stood up out of the swing. "YOU NEED FIVE MILLION YEN? I can't do that!"

"I know you can't… but you have to convince otou-san and ask him to give me the money. I need it in three days."

"So you want **me** to go and talk to our father for **you** so you can have five million yen? How much is the rent at your place?" She narrowed her eyes at him with suspicion.

"Well, it's not just rent… it's also for food too."

"Food and rent doesn't cost five million in a month. You're not telling me something."

"Of course you're not telling the little girl something, eh Tatsuya?" A man in a white suit seemed to meld out of the surrounding trees and walked over to Tatsuya. "You're honestly begging your _sister_ for money? If you didn't have the money, why buy?"

Tatsuya started getting shaky, his palms wet. "I promise you that I'll give you the money."

Aiko went over to Tatsuya and the man. She clutched Tatsuya's sleeve. "What money? Why… no wait, who is this guy?"

The man walked over to Aiko. "This guy is your brother right?"

She nodded, her chin jutting out defiantly. "What about it?"

"Well… your brother has dealing with some tough shit."

"I guess."

"He started getting some leaves from me and now he's going for the big stuff." He leaned in closer to Aiko. She didn't like the way he smelled; like smoke and debts. "Y'know, crystal meth and all that shit? It's the good stuff, but only if you have the money for it." He grinned. His teeth were overly white.

She put the pieces together. Drug debt. Not food and clothes. Tatsuya had lied to her, after all that they had been through, even after she stuck up for her own brother as she watched their father disown him… everything. It seemed like all the memories that they had together all disappeared in a moment.

Aiko's grip on her brother's sleeve tightened to the point of discomfort. She pulled back suddenly and shoved him hard away from her. Her hand struck across his face like a whip. "You're disgusting. Never talk to me ever again." She turned away from his startled eyes, breaking away from him fast, and not turning back.

**-x-**

Aiko ran out from the park in tears, looking around at the people who were walking by.

It was too much for her—everything that had been happening, it consumed her. Her family, Tatsuya, school, Kyoya, she felt so overwhelmed. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself and regain her senses. She then promptly fainted in the middle of the sidewalk.

**-x-**

**So here it is!**

**My apologies for the long wait. I have been busy with Three Months… and when I finish that, I'll definitely write more often. I will try to update monthly.**

**So as always, read and review! Drop a comment and let me know how it is? What do you think will happen next chapter? **


	13. Chapter 13

**Here I am!**

**It's definitely been a long time… so sorry for the long wait! I've been busy with school, finals, concertos, piano, guzheng, emcee duties, my friend moving away… stuff like that.**

**But here it is! Chapter 13!**

**Thanks to my awesome beta for editing this chapter. I really do appreciate her. A LOT. You have no idea how bad my grammar/punctuation/syntax really is…**

**You know the deal. I update, you guys read and review! Enjoy!**

**-x-**

_**Last time on To See the World…**_

_**Aiko ran out from the park in tears, looking around at the people who were walking by.**_

_**It was too much for her—everything that had been happening, it consumed her. Her family, Tatsuya, school, Kyoya, she felt so overwhelmed. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself and regain her senses. She then promptly fainted in the middle of the sidewalk.**_

**-x-**

Aiko woke up, squinting into the sun that was shining on her face. She was lying in an unfamiliar bed in a room with elaborately decorated walls and a large window directly above her.

She froze, realizing that she wasn't in her room. She quietly got out of the bed, not noticing the man that was dozing on the couch.

She crept slowly towards the door, and had only slightly touched the knob when she heard a voice.

"Why are you leaving so early in the morning? I have no idea why people always get up so damn early…" A voice grumbled.

Aiko yelped and spun around. "What the hell?" She cried, pointing at Kyoya. "Why am I in your house?"

"Last time I checked, you passed out on the streets." Kyoya stretched his arms and pulled himself into a standing position. He scowled. "Now I'm up. Good job."

She watched him yawn. "You're not a morning person are you?"

He shook his head and gave her a dry look. "And I'm guessing you are."

"I guess… It depends." She looked at Kyoya's clothes. "And why the hell are you in your outdoor clothes? Don't you have pajamas or something?"

"I was working late." He replied with irritation, not meeting Aiko's eye. "Plus I knew that I wouldn't get any sleep since you were sleeping on my bed."

She looked at the messed bed. "Crap. That was yours? I'm sorry about that!" She walked back over and began to straighten out the sheets.

Kyoya walked behind her and grasped her hands. "You don't need to do that—that's why we have maids." He sauntered over to his closet. "You should leave."

"And how am I supposed to get home?" She retorted, frowning at Kyoya.

"I mean that you can leave since I'm changing." He started unbuttoning his shirt. "Besides, I wouldn't leave a girl like you without a ride home." He smirked at her expression.

"Oh… I totally knew that." She replied, blinking. Aiko walked out and shut the door.

**-x-**

Aiko walked downstairs, ignoring any maids that were looking at her strangely. She tried to find a mirror where she could inspect her appearance.

She found one. The sight wasn't pretty. Her hair was completely unruly, her clothes were all rumpled and her makeup was a mess. She knew that this wouldn't make a very good impression on the Ootori family, so she quickly walked to a bathroom and tried to fix the way she looked as much as she possibly could.

She walked out of the bathroom and saw Kyoya lounging on a chair. "Took you long enough."

"Sorry, I didn't exactly notice that I looked like a total mess. Thanks for letting me know." She gave him a dry look.

"You're welcome." He smirked and began to walk away from her. "Are you coming?"

She quickly caught up with him. "Just to let you know, you smirk a lot."

Kyoya looked at her. "Just to let you know, whenever you lie, you blink a lot."

She made a face and muttered, "Touché."

**-x-**

"The first stop will be to get you some new clothes."

Aiko looked at Kyoya sharply, eyes wide with disbelief. "New clothes? I'm just going home; it's not a big deal."

Kyoya ignored her. "Which store do you like?"

Aiko looked outside the window, raising an eyebrow at the multitude of the designer clothing stores. "Kyoya, I don't shop here! Why in the world would I shop here?"

Kyoya leaned back into his seat. "Your sisters look like they would shop here."

"And those are my sisters!" she waved her arms around frantically and Kyoya laughed. She pointed at herself. "I'm me. I'm different. Don't treat me like my sisters."

Kyoya kept on laughing. Aiko put her hands on her hips. "I'm actually surprised that you would laugh. This would probably be the first time I've ever seen you laugh."

Kyoya frowned at her. "I've laughed in front of you before, haven't I?"

"Well all those times you sounded extremely superficial." She pointed at him. "That was a real laugh."

"Driver, stop here please."

Aiko glanced out the window. "Kyoya, where are we going?"

"Just calm down and relax."

**-x-**

Aiko glared at her reflection in the mirror. "Kyoya, I'm not wearing this outfit."

He walked over to her and patted her shoulder. "You look just fine."

She wore a purple dress that went right above her knees, on the middle of the dress was a brown belt and she wore brown thigh highs and beige clogs.

"This will cost an obscene amount of money."

Kyouya looked amused. "That's why we're rich. Last time I checked, we're from two of the richest families of Japan, and we can afford anything."

The sales clerk looked at the two and smiled. Aiko saw the clerk's reflection in the mirror and her eyes widened. "Kyoya, I'm not buying this."

"You aren't; I am." He turned to the sales clerk. "Excuse me, how much is this?"

She grimaced at Kyoya and looked around the store while he was paying for the clothes.

'_What is he doing? He was just supposed to take me home…'_ She looked at the time. _'And I need to go home too…'_

Kyoya walked up to her. "You want anything else?" He handed her a bag. "Here's your stuff. I was going to throw it out, but the sales clerk wouldn't let me."

Aiko snatched the bag away from him. "You can't throw out my stuff like that!" She gritted her teeth and stormed back to the car. "You better take me home."

Kyoya looked around the store. "You sure you don't want anything? I'm sure we could find a necklace or some accessories for your outfit."

"No Kyoya, I don't want anything from the store. I just want to go home."

**-x-**

"Kyoya, this is not the definition of taking me home."

"What? Girls don't like ice cream?"

They were currently at a small ice cream parlor waiting for their orders. Kyoya looked around the room skeptically. "Tamaki told me that they just opened this place a little while ago. I think he took Haruhi once…"

The waitress came with their ice cream and gave them an overly bright smile. "One strawberry parfait and one banana split. Enjoy!"

Aiko looked at her parfait and tentatively poked at the whipped cream with her spoon.

"I'm surprised that you aren't a chocolate fan." Kyoya looked at her parfait. "I always thought of you more as the chocolate type."

"I do like chocolate, but not this early in the morning."

"Aiko, it's nearly eleven in the morning. It's not that early."

"Says the man that sleeps to one every morning." She muttered.

Aiko picked a bit of fruit off the top of the parfait and ate it. "So how about you? Isn't a banana split very cliché? When I think ice cream sundae, I think banana split." She pointed her spoon at him. "You're not very original when it comes to food."

He ignored her insult. "Tamaki said that the banana splits were good here."

"So you listen to everything Tamaki says?"

He shook his head. "He gave me a small recommendation. Is there a problem with that?"

"I'm just saying that your life is more than the Host Club, the Ootori business and Tamaki. There's more to life than that."

"Then what else is there?"

"Well, you know, the TV, computer… friends…" She began to tick things off on her fingers, but paused to think.

"It seems as if you are lost for words."

"Well, I thought it would be easy for me to name at least 10 or 20 things, but I guess it isn't."

He gave her a smoldering look. "It appears that our lives are very similar. Both a bit droll- perhaps a tad lame when looked at by someone else. All you worry about is school and your company's business."

Aiko viciously took a bite of her parfait, twitching in indignation. "There's more to that—you obviously don't know anything about me!"

"Then what else is there to know?" He raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you're really a very multifaceted person? I find that hard to believe."

"Why are you attacking me? You're the really uptight and stiff one!"

He took another spoonful of ice cream, cool and collected as always. "So are you. You know they call you're the ice queen at school, you have no friends and you don't even try to be social."

"So? Do you have an issue with that? I don't like the girls at Ouran."

"And the girls at Lobelia are supposed to be any better?"

"There's a reason why I left, Kyoya, did you honestly think that I wanted to stay there? It was so boring!" She complained, taking a bite of her ice cream. "What about you? You don't try to make any friends either!"

"But at least I _have_ friends, there's a difference."

"Your friends are the same people in your club! Admit it… it if wasn't for Tamaki-san, you wouldn't be friends with those people."

Silence descended upon them like a heavy rain.

After five minutes, Kyoya stood up. "Let me go pay the bill." He left and went into the shop.

Aiko put her elbow on the table and propped her head. "I'm such an idiot." She whispered to herself.

Kyoya looked out the window and saw Aiko sulking. He was met with a sharp stab of guilt at her pained expression, and so he quickly hurried outside. Aiko sat straight up at his arrival.

"Missed me?"

Aiko smirked at him. "What makes you think that I missed you?"

Kyoya walked back around the table and sat down on his chair. "Well, I've been gone for only about two minutes and I saw you sulking… you must have missed me."

"Don't be so arrogant. Arrogance makes a man unattractive." She retorted.

"So you actually thought that I was attractive?"

"Don't get all big headed now that I've said so," She looked at him straight in the face. "But yeah, I've always thought that you were attractive."

He met her gaze readily and smirked. "And when did that start?"

She gave him a look. "And since when were we playing Twenty Questions?"

"Since now; and I get to go first."

"Fine, be that way." She started stirring her ice cream slowly before clearing her throat. "I thought that you were attractive when I saw you at the mall with Tamaki-san and Haruhi. You looked very relaxed and calm and you gave off a very different aura than you would if we were in school."

"So I'm not physically attractive to you?"

"It's my turn to ask a question, so I can't answer that. You just have to wait your turn." Aiko grinned and then started contemplating on a question to ask.

"Hm… I don't know what to ask. Okay, how about this; how did you find me last night?"

"I found you while I was on the way to a dinner meeting in town. On the way there I saw a group of people gathered up on the sidewalk and I was curious as to what was going on. I got out of the car, and I saw you on the ground. I picked you up and took you home."

Aiko furrowed her eyebrows. "What about your dinner meeting?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer that, your turn is up."

Aiko pouted and Kyoya grinned. "Here's my question: why were you in the park last night?"

She looked up at Kyoya with wide eyes. "I can't answer that."

"I think you have to: it's the rule."

"No I don't." She replied snapped. "I don't have to answer anything."

"You're blinking again… stop lying to me Aiko!" He stood up and Aiko slunk back into the chair in fear.

Kyoya sat down and took a deep breath. "I don't like liars."

"I could tell." Aiko answered back quietly, avoiding Kyoya's steely gaze. She looked away and tried to change the topic. "Why don't we leave and head over somewhere else? I saw a nice park on the way to the store, we can go there." She hurried out of the store.

**-x-**

Aiko walked in the park and was looking at the trees and the flowers. She felt very awkward around Kyoya after what had happened at the ice cream parlor. She couldn't figure out what had really made Kyoya that mad.

She stopped and waited for Kyoya to catch up. When she was walking alongside with him, she whispered, "I'll tell you why."

Kyoya looked at her. "Why what?"

"Why I was out at that park last night. It's a long story… sort of."

Kyoya looked at the sky. "We have lots of time." He walked over to a bench and patted the seat, indicating for Aiko to sit down. "You can tell me the parts that you want me to know."

Aiko nodded sat next to him, crossing her arms against her chest. "My brother was supposed to head off to Germany with his biological mother while she was on her world tour. He told me that he really wanted to go and leave Japan to perform music with his mother."

"That's a good thing, isn't it? Your brother moving on and doing different things, there's nothing bad about that."

She shook her head. "That's not the problem. The problem started a couple of weeks ago when he started acting really weird, and I had no idea why. He kept himself in his room and didn't talk to anyone. I thought that it was just him realizing that he was going to leave…but then when he left, he didn't even write or call me."

Aiko took a deep breath. "Then all of a sudden, I got a text from him at school, and he told me to meet him at the park where we used to play when we were little. I thought that he came back to visit and I got really excited, so I said that I would meet him. I did and… there was Tatsuya." There were tears threatening to fall down.

"He's still here, he never left?"

Aiko nodded. "Apparently so. He didn't tell me. For weeks I was kept out of the loop—I just assumed that he left. But he didn't. He told me that he didn't want to leave." She remembered her conversation with Tatsuya and closed her eyes.

"Where is he now?"

Aiko shook her head again. "I have no idea… I guess he's staying at his friend's house."

Kyoya nodded and paused. "I guess it's your turn to ask a question."

Aiko dried her tears and inhaled a deep breath. "Why did you join the Host Club?"

"Because Tamaki told me to."

"You're so straightforward about these sorts of things. There must be a story behind it!"

Kyoya shook his head. "None. I was skeptical at first and then Tamaki wanted to be my friend… and he warmed up to me. He eventually convinced me and a bunch of people to be part of the Host Club. I guess that's just because of his charismatic presence and charm. Soon enough, he became my best friend. That's it."

Aiko smiled. "That's a story all in itself." She leaned back on the bench, closed her eyes and winced in pain.

Kyoya looked at her in concern. "Are you all right?"

She tried to control her breathing and nodded. "I'm fine. It's your turn to ask a question."

He paused for a moment and started thinking. "Your mother…"

She looked at him quizzically. "My mother?"

"What happened to her?"

"Oh…" Aiko took another sharp breath. "She died when I was three."

Kyoya stiffened in surprise. "My condolences."

Aiko shrugged. "It's no problem. It happened a while ago… I can tell you that I really didn't know her, so I don't know all the details since I was only a little kid. For this question, you're better off asking Itsuko and Fuyuko." Aiko looked down at the ground.

She had lied once again. She knew exactly how her mother died. She remembered every detail as her siblings yelled and scolded at her. She remembered her father's cold looks of disdain and her grandparents' cold stares. Everyone blamed her for being the killer; since after her birth, her mother's health had begun to fail.

If Kyoya had asked them, they would tell him the truth—that she killed her mother in the womb. That she was the guilty one.

Aiko cleared her throat. "What about your mother?"

"She left my family when I was six years old. According to my sister, their marriage was a marriage of convenience: they only were together due to some contract made between the two families. I don't really miss her, but there are times where I wished that I had a mother. My father is very cold and stoic."

Aiko remembered when she had met Kyoya's father at the Social. "Yeah, I agree with that."

Kyoya laughed. "You think so?"

She smiled again. "That's probably where the gene came from!" She started laughing uncontrollable and before she knew it, she had started to hyperventilate. She slid off the bench and on to her knees.

"Ky…Kyoy…Help." She gripped her chest, a trail of blood sliding out from her mouth.

Kyoya lifted Aiko up and pulled out his cell phone. "Driver, come here immediately. We're in the park."

**-x-**

The next twenty minutes was a blur. He remembered holding Aiko in his arms while she begged for help and air, dropping her off at the hospital and watching the doctors gather around her and put her in a room.

He was waiting inside the room where Aiko was hooked up to many machines. The beeping noises didn't calm him at all.

Those noises scared him. He was scared at the fact that she could be between life and death, and at any given moment, she could leave this world.

Aiko's eyes fluttered open and started looking around the room. She saw Kyoya sitting by her side, waiting for her to wake up.

"Kyoya…" She whispered and turned to look at him.

She slowly moved her hand to touch his and made a small smile. "Thank you for staying."

Aiko glanced to the door and saw her doctor hovering in the doorway. "Shiro-sensei…"

"Aiko. What happened?" He looked at her charts. "I thought that you were all right and all of a sudden this happens?"

"I'm sorry. I forgot to take my medication today."

Shiro Kazuma put down the clipboard and sighed. "And look what happened. You don't take your medication and you have an attack! You can't be irresponsible like this! How am I going to explain to your father what happened to you when you haven't even let him know what's going on?"

Kyoya cleared his throat. "Excuse me."

Kazuma turned and jumped at the sight of Kyoya. "Kyoya-sama, I didn't know you were here."

"I would appreciate if you didn't treat our patients here at the Ootori Hospitals like that."

Aiko interjected before he became irate again. "Kyoya, its fine… he's a friend of mine."

"No, it is not fine. It's not healthy to treat patients like that." He snapped.

She looked at him. "Why don't you wait outside and calm down. I need to talk to Shiro-sensei."

Kyoya left, but it didn't look like he was happy about it.

**-x-**

Kazuma helped Aiko prop herself up on the bed.

"You should have known that Kyoya was there, shame on you!" She smiled.

"I'm serious Aiko. Do you know what the doctors were saying about you? You lost a bunch of blood and it's possible for you to have a seizure again."

"Well, I'm fine now and you don't need to tell my dad. Just let me know how much I need to pay you." She started playing with her fingers.

"Aiko…" Kazuma paused, trying to find the right words. "It's not about the money. It's about the surgery. You need to tell your father."

Aiko's eyes began to water. "I can't tell him… If I tell him…" She covered her face with her hands and tried to stifle her tears.

Kazuma gave Aiko a pitying stare and rubbed her shoulder. "Shh… It will be all right." He sighed and backed out of the room.

Kazuma glanced at Kyoya as he was leaving. "She's crying. But then again you would know seeming as how you've been watching us through the window."

Kyoya frowned. "What did you say to her? She would never cry this easily."

"You should ask her." He walked down the hallway.

Kyoya quickly entered the room and patted Aiko's shoulder. "It will be all right. Take a deep breath." He felt extremely awkward, not knowing what he was supposed to do.

**-x-**

After ten minutes, Aiko stopped crying and realized that she was hugging Kyoya. "Sorry about that." She pointed to the tearstained shirt.

Kyoya looked down at the shirt and rested Aiko gently down on the bed. "It's fine."

She twiddled her thumbs. "Thanks for staying with me. I was certain that you would drop me off at the hospital and then head home. I took up a lot of your time today."

Kyoya blinked his eyes several times. How could he explain what he had felt when she had been asleep in the hospital? The sounds and the blinking machines, the oxygen tanks, the blood bags, the doctors' scrambling: he felt uncomfortable. He couldn't explain how he felt, why he was in the room, or why he stayed with her. "Hn."

Aiko looked down at her hands, dejected by his response. "Thanks for the outing. I really did appreciate it. I had fun while it lasted." She looked up at him and smiled.

Kyoya sat down on the chair and smiled at Aiko. "Do you want to continue our game?"

**-x-**

**So here it is. I promise that I will update sooner! I have nothing much to do but practice my music this summer, so I should have time to update and write…**

**I feel like I wrote this chapter differently than the rest… maybe it's just the format. I don't know.**

**What do you think Kyoya felt when Aiko called it an "outing"? Do you think it was more than that? Let me know and stay tuned for the next chapter of ****To See the World! **


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry for such a long update!**

**I've been busy with a bunch of stuff, as well as writing a new story… The title is ****I'm Me****; it's about Clare Edwards in the TV show Degrassi.**

**I think I've hit writer's block. It really sucks… but please bear with me!**

**But anyways, I hope that people are still reading this! Please read and review!**

**-x-**

_**Last time on **__**To See the World**__**…**_

_Kyoya blinked his eyes several times. How could he explain what he had felt when she had been asleep in the hospital? The sounds and the blinking machines, the oxygen tanks, the blood bags, the doctors' scrambling: he felt uncomfortable. He couldn't explain how he felt, why he was in the room, or why he stayed with her. "Hn."_

_Aiko looked down at her hands, dejected by his response. "Thanks for the outing. I really did appreciate it. I had fun while it lasted." She looked up at him and smiled._

_Kyoya sat down on the chair and smiled at Aiko. "Do you want to continue our game?"_

**-x-**

The next morning, Aiko woke up listening to the sounds of the beeping and blinking machines.

She cocked her head to the side and saw a young man sleeping on a chair. She smiled and chuckled at the man.

"He actually stayed all night?" Aiko murmured, putting a hand on the top of his head and ruffled his hair gently.

The young man stirred in his sleep and, waking up, slowly pulled himself into a normal sitting position. "What time is it?" He muttered, rubbing his eyes and putting on his glasses.

"It's pretty early for you."

He looked up at Aiko. "You slept well?" He looked at all the machines. "I wouldn't be able to get any sleep with machines beeping and needles poking in me."

She nodded. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm used to these sorts of things." She looked at him. "The question is if you got a good sleep. I'm pretty sure sleeping like that is very uncomfortable." She smiled at him. "Thanks for staying with me last night. I really do appreciate it."

**-x-**

Twenty minutes later, Kazuma walked into the room and saw Kyoya and Aiko conversing. "You're all set Aiko, you can go home now." He walked to Aiko and checked her vitals. "I didn't intend on keeping you overnight," he admitted, marking something on a clipboard, "But it looks like you are doing much better now that I have."

Two nurses came in and started switching off machines and taking out needles. Aiko relaxed in the bed and closed her eyes.

"Aiko, I'm going to ask you to wear an oxygen mask when you go to sleep every night. Your lungs aren't working as well as I would like them too. It would be optimal if you wear it all the time, but I know that that isn't possible for you."

Aiko looked at Kazuma. "Thank you very much for taking care of me."

Kazuma walked to Aiko and put his hand on her shoulder. "You know that you're always welcome here. You can ask me for help anytime."

**-x-**

An hour later, Kyoya and Aiko were in the car together driving to Aiko's city apartment.

"I really appreciate you staying with me. Thanks for everything." Aiko said, looking at Kyoya. "I had a lot of fun yesterday afternoon, and I'm really sorry for ruining it."

Kyoya moved his eyes from the window to look at Aiko. "You don't need to apologize to me. Whatever occurred has already happened, so there's no changing it. You don't need to worry about it. Besides, while you were sleeping, I got some paperwork done in the offices."

Aiko chortled. "In the end, you still end up focusing on work. I'm not surprised." She crossed her arms.

The two sat in silence while the car was in motion. Aiko leaned against the side of the car and looked at the city view. Within minutes, the car was at the apartment. The driver came out of his side and went to open Aiko's door.

Aiko walked slowly out with the oxygen mask. "Thanks for the ride." She started walking slowly up to the door.

She was ready to put the keycard into the door when a hand swooped by and opened the door for her. "I don't think it's safe for an injured young woman like you to go back home yourself."

Aiko scoffed. "You think I'm not capable? I'm not injured, I just have an oxygen tank to carry, and it's not a big deal." She walked inside the building and Kyoya followed.

The two walked up to the elevator and Aiko pushed the button. "Thanks Kyoya, I can take it from here. I'll see you later?" She smiled at him.

Kyoya smiled back and patted her shoulder. "Call me if you need to talk." He turned around and walked out the door.

The elevator opened and Aiko walked in. When the elevator closed, Aiko heaved a big sigh and put her hand on her heart.

Her heart was beating faster than ever. And for the first time, she wasn't in pain.

**-x-**

When Kyoya arrived at home, he went up to his office to see Tamaki sitting in his chair.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Haruhi?" Kyoya irately questioned, physically forcing Tamaki out of the chair.

"I thought you would be here! And I wanted to visit my favorite mommy in the whole wide world!" Tamaki stood up and opened his arms out wide, wanting to hug Kyoya.

Kyoya pushed him aside. "No one can take you seriously if you keep on acting like that."

Tamaki put his arms down and walked over to Kyoya who was sitting at his desk. "I looked through your computer. I've noticed that you have lots of pictures of a certain girl." He turned the laptop screen in Kyoya's direction. "Where did you get these pictures?"

In one quick motion, Kyoya leaned over and shut the computer. "People."

Tamaki smiled and nodded. "So you've been busy."

"Yeah."

"I heard that you went to see Aiko."

"Yeah, I did." He stared at Tamaki who was attempting to make a sexy pose on Kyoya's desk. "Now get off my desk before you ruin all my papers."

Tamaki refused to get off. "You know you like it Mommy." He laughed and went into a normal sitting position, his legs dangling of the desk. "So what did you learn about Aiko?"

"I learned that she only has a father; her mother died when she was little. She and her sisters have names with a '-ko' ending since her mother used to like it. She enjoys eating strawberries and loves to eat cake."

"So you've learned a lot about her."

He snorted. "I guess so."

Tamaki eyed Kyoya carefully. "And I'm guessing that you're in love with this girl?"

Kyoya opened his laptop and looked at Aiko's picture. "I guess I am."

**-x-**

Meanwhile, Aiko was sitting on her couch in her apartment thinking about Kyoya.

'_He couldn't possibly like me…'_ She started twiddling her fingers.

"No," she muttered, "He couldn't like a girl who's always attached to an oxygen tank and IV. It's not possible."

**-x-**

The weekend passed by and when Monday came along Aiko was trying to hide from Kyoya.

Before entering the classroom, she would look to find Kyoya and when the coast was clear, she was slowly start to walk in and glide over to her seat.

Kyoya noticed her strange behavior and smirked every time Aiko tried to sneak into a classroom.

'_Last period—I can do this. I've haven't seen him all day…'_ Aiko thought, looking around the corridors. She took one step into her history class and a large arm stopped her from entering.

"Where do you think you're going?"

She looked behind. _'Shit! It's Kyoya!'_

"Kyoya…" She started blushing. "I…"

"Why are you still avoiding me? I thought that we were friends." He moved his arm and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Are you feeling all right?" His face looked solemn.

Aiko pushed him away. "Of course I'm fine! If I wasn't, then why would I even be here in school?" Her face started turning pink. "Stop trying to follow me!" She charged into the classroom.

**-x-**

The whole week, Aiko tried to avoid Kyoya.

'_It's too hard to avoid him…'_ She looked down the empty hallway. _'I can't stay here; he and his friends will come here to go to their host club.'_ She started walking backwards until she bumped into someone.

"Oops! I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to bump into you!" Aiko looked to see Tamaki offering Aiko a hand.

"Suou-san, I'm so sorry!" She straightened out the bottom of her dress. She looked to see the whole group behind him. She walked in the opposite direction until a hand came to grab her.

"Come. Stay."

She looked to see Kyoya looking straight at her. "Fine." She walked towards Kyoya. "I'll stay for today."

Honey ran over to Aiko! "Yay! Now I get to eat cakes with Ai-chan! Kyoya said that we got all these new strawberry cakes!"

Aiko giggled and grabbed Honey's hand and started running down the hallway with him. She looked back and smiled at Kyoya.

Tamaki walked by Kyoya and put a hand on his shoulder before walking with Haruhi and entering the club room.

**-x-**

The whole time Aiko had so much fun. She spent two hours laughing, eating and joking around. She met new people and had actually started to like the Host Club.

At the end of the day Aiko walked up to Kyoya. "Thanks for inviting me. I had a great time!" She went to his side and entwined her hand in his. She went to his ear and whispered, "And thanks for the delicious cake. It was amazing!"

Kyoya looked at her smiling visage and smiled back. "I'm glad you had a great time. You looked more carefree than you normally are which is good."

She laughed. "Yeah, I kind of noticed. I feel different now." She stopped smiling and started to cough.

"Careful, don't wear yourself out." He walked to the back room and put away his clipboard. "Want me to drive you home?"

Aiko nodded. "That would be great."

**-x-**

While in the car, Aiko slipped a pill into her mouth and gulped a mouthful of water. "It is past five o'clock, I have to take my medication." She put the water bottle and pill bottle away.

She looked at Kyoya-he was giving her a strange look. "What's wrong?"

"I don't understand."

She smiled. "What don't you understand?"

He clasped his hands together. "I don't understand how normally you are so stoic and stiff at school yet now you're so carefree and nonchalant. It's like there's two different personalities in you."

She stopped smiling and looked at Kyoya. "You should understand. You're exactly the same! You're nice one day and cold the next. You act like a certain person when you're in front of your friends and another when you're in front of your father or anyone important. It's the way we work." Her voice lowered and became harsher.

"However, I know exactly who I am, do you?"

Aiko's eyes widened. "Driver," she shouted, "Drop me off here."

Aiko took her bag and purse and opened the door. "Thanks, but no thanks." She walked away and didn't look back.

**-x-**

'_Shit, I just ruined it, didn't I?'_ Kyoya thought while doing his homework. _'I shouldn't have said that.'_

He looked at his screensaver and saw a collage of pictures of Aiko and him when they went out for ice cream.

The phone suddenly rang and the name 'Aiko' popped up on the caller ID; Kyoya quickly picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hi Kyoya-kun."

Kyoya couldn't recognize the voice. "Who is this?"

"This is Itsuko, Aiko's sister. You must remember me from the shopping mall and from the social."

"Sure."

"Well I wanted to ask you out to a date tomorrow afternoon. You and me out at the newest chic French bistro at four o'clock."

"How come you're using Aiko's phone?"

"Because," she paused. "I knew that if I called you with my phone, you wouldn't pick it up. You must be in love with my sister; you answered it right after the first ring!"

Kyoya cleared his throat. "I do that with all phone calls, regardless of the caller."

"Look," she started to say, "I know that you and my sister like each other. But there's a little issue with that… she's supposed to be with Suoh-san, not you. She's just using you; she's putting out her charms to get to you since you're Suoh-san's right hand man."

Kyoya rolled his eyes. "What are you talking about? Aiko wouldn't do anything like that."

"You have to admit that she is pretty clever. Poor Aiko with her weak heart. She doesn't look like the boy-snatching type. People think she's too _fragile_ for something like that. But I know better since I'm her sister. So I'm saving you from her. Go out with me instead."

"Kyoya scowled at the phone. "I don't know what to say." This was not the Aiko he knew.

"You and me tomorrow afternoon at the French bistro. I'll see you then." Itsuko hung up the phone.

Kyoya put down the phone and clasped his hands together._ 'Aiko would never do something like that… would she? '_

**-x-**

"Oh Fuyuko!" Itsuko started in a sing-song tune, "I need your help!" she continued singing.

Fuyuko opened her bedroom door. "What's up?"

Itsuko clapped her hands together. "Oh I don't know… Maybe I need your help for preparing for my date with Kyoya-kun tomorrow!"

"You what?" Fuyuko turned her head to the side in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Oh come on Fuyuko! Use your brain for once!" Itsuko shouted. "I," she pointed at herself, "have a date with Ootori Kyoya tomorrow at the new French bistro that just opened last week!"

"But isn't Kyoya-san," Fuyuko said slowly, "Aiko's friend?"

"Oh puh-lease!" Itsuko put her hand on Fuyuko's shoulder. "They aren't a thing yet, and besides… I'm just helping Ai-chan, our darling little sister, get Suoh-san. Kyoya is nothing more than a distraction for her."

Fuyuko smiled. "Well, if it's to help our little sister, why don't we get you all pretty for your date tomorrow!"

Itsuko grinned and sauntered off in Fuyuko's room. "Make sure you shut the door. We don't want any little pests walking into your room, do we?"

**-x-**

Aiko walked into her room and started on her homework. She was replaying the events that had occurred in the car earlier in the evening and frowned about it.

What if Kyoya figured out what she was trying to do?

At first, yes she had to admit that she was only attracted to him because of what her father wanted to do. But afterwards, she realized that she was slowly falling in love with him.

And she didn't want to ruin it.

If Kyoya found out now, their friendship would be destroyed.

But she couldn't tell her father that she couldn't get together with Tamaki, because then her relationship with her father would be destroyed as well.

Aiko's eyes became blurry as tears started streaming down her face and onto her Japanese history paper.

But she didn't care anymore. Kyoya was right.

Kyoya was always right about everything, and the minute he found out the real truth, he wouldn't want to talk to her ever again.

**-x-**

On Friday, Aiko walked over to the nurse's office and waited for Kyoya to show up.

When he didn't, she looked for him in the cafeteria and still couldn't find him.

Therefore, after school when she saw him walking towards his car, she immediately followed him.

She followed him all the way to the French bistro. _'Why would he be here?'_

Aiko quietly got out of her car without Kyoya knowing and followed him to the bistro.

'_Oh my god.'_ She looked and saw Itsuko in a dress sitting on a table waving at Kyoya. _'No!'_ She stared as Kyoya nodded back at her and sat down across from Itsuko.

"I'm so glad you came! I thought that you wouldn't show!"

"I had stuff to do, but I wouldn't miss a chance to be with Aiko's sister."

Itsuko giggled. "You're only hanging out with me because I'm Aiko's sister? I thought it would because I'm pretty and have beautiful eyes." She said flirtatiously.

"Of course you do." He put his hand through his hair. "But I'm not here to socialize with you. I'm here to find out the truth about Aiko."

Aiko couldn't make out what they were saying; she tried to listen to their conversation but she couldn't hear anything, and she was too afraid to try and get any closer. Her heart was pounding furiously and tears were threatening to fall from her eyes.

She dashed away from the bistro and leapt back into the car.

**-x-**

'_Itsuko and Kyoya? That's not possible…'_ Aiko put her hands to her face. "It can't be possible," she whispered to herself, "it's not…"

Once she arrived at her house she immediately bumped into Shizuo.

"I'm so sorry Nii-san!" She picked up her bags. "I didn't mean to."

Shizuo got up and scratched the top of his head. "I thought you were supposed to be with Kyoya today."

She shook her head. "That's Itsuko."

"Huh. I heard from her that she wants to steal Kyoya from you. So she's telling him everything."

She gasped and her mouth gaped open. "_Everything_?"

Shizuo nodded. "I could be wrong, but Fuyuko told me too."

Aiko sniffled. "Thanks. I really appreciate your telling me this." She got out of the way and hurried upstairs.

If Kyoya knew the truth—the whole truth—then she would be screwed. And Kyoya would never be able to forgive her.

**-x-**

Aiko sat down at her desk and started doing her homework. She tried to resist the urge to pick up the phone and call Kyoya; she didn't want to seem too concerned.

She continued her homework until the phone rang.

**-x-**

**Ooh… And the chapter ends here!**

**So I promise that I will try to update—but I've been so busy with stuff and other projects that I've been working on, I haven't been able to update. **

**Kudos to my beta for sticking with me!  
**

**Please read and enjoy! I hope that even though it's a late update, I still have faithful readers! (:**


	15. Chapter 15

**To See the World chapter 15**

**So sorry for the long update… I've been so busy with schoolwork! Anyways, these chapters take me longer to type than my other story (I'm Me) because these chapters are approximately 12-15 pages on Microsoft word… Which is a lot. Please understand.**

**But nonetheless enjoy!**

**-x-**

_**Last time on **__**To See the World…**_

_**Shizuo got up and scratched the top of his head. "I thought you were supposed to be with Kyoya today."**_

_**She shook her head. "That's Itsuko."**_

_**"Huh. I heard from her that she wants to steal Kyoya from you. So she's telling him everything."**_

_**She gasped and her mouth gaped open. "**__**Everything**__**?"**_

_**Shizuo nodded. "I could be wrong, but Fuyuko told me too."**_

_**Aiko sniffled. "Thanks. I really appreciate your telling me this." She got out of the way and hurried upstairs.**_

_**If Kyoya knew the truth—the whole truth—then she would be screwed. And Kyoya would never be able to forgive her.**_

_**-x-**_

_**Aiko sat down at her desk and started doing her homework. She tried to resist the urge to pick up the phone and call Kyoya; she didn't want to seem too concerned.**_

_**She continued her homework until the phone rang.**_

**-x-**

The phone rang, and Aiko apprehensively looked at the caller ID. _'Kyoya.'_ She sighed and picked up the line. "Hello?"

His voice was cold.

"Tell me that it isn't true. Tell me that it's all a lie."

He heart dropped and tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "…It's true." She choked out, and then abruptly hung up the phone.

**-x-**

The next morning Kazuhiko household was silent.

Fuyuko cracked her boiled egg and smiled at Kazumi. "Ne… when are you due Kazumi-san?"

The heavily pregnant woman placed her fork and knife down and put her hands on her stomach. "Pretty soon."

Itsuko gave her a sly smirk. "Have you decided on a name yet? What gender is the baby?"

Kazumi glanced from her stomach to Kentaro. "It's a boy." She said, and watched his face light up. Kazumi abruptly stood up, sauntered over to where Itsuko was sitting and kissed her cheek. "Unlike you, I know how to please your father." Kazumi whispered in her ear, and then, feeling as if she had gotten the upper hand, left the room. Grimacing, Itsuko stared after her.

Aiko stared straight at the wall, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone. If Kazumi threatened Itsuko, then perhaps she was aware that practically everyone, sans Kentaro, was aware of Kazumi's farce. Aiko stood up, bowed to her father and left the room.

Aiko quietly stepped up the stairs and heard Kazumi talking on the phone. "Hiro, they are starting to know! How am I supposed to deliver a baby I don't even have? They're starting to figure everything out!"

Aiko rolled her eyes and went to her bedroom. No matter how much she detested Kazumi, she felt some empathy for her. After all, it was almost like they were in the same position. Except, of course, Kyoya now knew.

How could Itsuko do this to her? Why would she? Aiko's mind was filled with questions like these; Questions that would not go away.

She quickly picked up her bag and left for school. _'I honestly do not want to go to school today… what will I say to Kyoya?'_ She trembled at the thought.

**-x-**

"Kazuhiko-san, you're needed in the Nurse's Office."

Aiko nodded at the teacher, even though she was confused. It was a Monday, why would she need to meet Kyoya?

She slowly made her way over to the Nurse's Office where Kyoya was sitting on one of the beds, hands on his head and his elbows propped on his knees. Aiko timidly walked over. "Kyoya-san?"

Kyoya looked up and saw Aiko. "Hello." She wished she could tell what he was thinking.

Aiko carefully knelt down on the ground in front of Kyoya. "Kyoya-san, I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to." Tentatively, she reached out her hand and lightly touched Kyoya's cheek. "Please understand."

Kyoya pushed her hand away and immediately stood up. He took a deep breath. "Do you honestly think that I should forgive you? Your sister told me everything about you: your bad habits, your pet peeves, your illness and your little 'mission.' What am I supposed to do with that kind of information? Did you really think that now everything will all be normal and the same as before?" His face started getting flushed. "Did you really think that you could play me and use me just to get with Tamaki? How did you feel when he told you about how madly in love he is with Haruhi? Most would just stop and give up… but no, you had to find another way into Tamaki's heart. And you did it through me."

He started to shake- his hands scrunched up into tight fists. He looked to the door and saw Tamaki standing in front of it. "Tamaki."

Aiko looked back at Tamaki and tears started to fall down her face. "I am so sorry." She hefted herself up and patted down her dress. "I'm really sorry about everything, I never meant cause such damage and harm to you and everyone else." She put her hand on her mouth and the tears started coming down faster. She took her hand off and whispered, "You don't understand why I have to do this. If I didn't… then my father…" She looked at Kyoya with teary eyes and saw his stoic face. "I understand now. I'll stay away from you and your friends." She looked at Tamaki. "My sincerest apologies."

Tamaki looked at her in shock and Kyoya turned away- refusing to meet her gaze.

It was too much. Aiko ran out of the room and shut the door.

**-x-**

Tamaki walked to Kyoya and put his hand on Kyoya's shoulder. "What happened?"

Kyoya sat down on the bed. "She came to our school to see you. Once she found out that you liked Haruhi, she immediately went out with me just so she could be closer to you."

Kyoya stood up and his phone started vibrating. He took out his phone. "I got a text from Itsuko. I'm going to and meet her after school today so I can't go to the Host Club." He walked out of the room, leaving Tamaki behind.

**-x-**

"So, did you confront my little sister?" Itsuko smiled while playing around with the straw in her lemonade. "Why do you look so sad? You asked for the truth and I told you. Don't shoot the messenger!"

Kyoya eyed the food on the table. "Since when do you like snails?"

Itsuko clapped her hands together and laughed. "I can't believe you noticed! You have such a keen eye for little details! I have a bunch of friends who told me that the snails here are really good! Plus, they're a good source of protein."

Kyoya pushed the plate of snails in her direction. "You eat first. I'll get something else."

"Awww… Kyoya doesn't like snails?" She started to pout. "You wouldn't even eat one snail? What if I was Aiko? Would you eat one then? I know you would. You would do anything for Aiko." She took a snail and put it in her mouth. "It's really good! You should try one." She moved her face closer to Kyoya's and kissed him while putting the snail in his mouth.

Itsuko smiled and looked at Kyoya while he was eating the snail. "That was a good snail wasn't it?"

He stood quickly and put down money on the table. "Here's money to pay for the meal. I'm afraid I have to leave early."

He walked out of the restaurant and straight to his car. But before he could get there Itsuko burst through the doors and grabbed his sleeve. "Ootori Kyoya! Don't you dare leave me!" He turned around and she slapped him in the face. You promised me! I told you the truth and now you have to be my boyfriend!"

Kyoya rubbed his cheek. "I don't have time for insignificant people like you. Did you know that I had to skip my club meeting just so I could see you? What a waste of time."

Itsuko's face started getting pink. "You think you can just put down money on a table and leave? Have you been playing with me this whole time? And here I thought that you wanted to leave my bitch of a sister and be with me! How dare you reject me for that worthless garbage!"

"Unlike you, your sister is actually smart and caring." He snapped. "And I kept my part of the bargain—I said that I would go a date with you. And I have. And I've decided that we wouldn't look good together. We're clearly not a good match." Fuming, he turned away.

Itsuko quickly grabbed his jacket sleeve again. "Kyoya-kun," she sing-songed, "I can forgive you for everything if you just walk back into the restaurant with me and finish our date."

He finally managed to pry her hand off his jacket. "Not interested in the least bit. Sorry." He opened the car door and left Itsuko standing on the sidewalk.

**-x-**

Kyoya walked up to the front door of the Kazuhiko residence. He hesitated before ringing the doorbell.

'_What if she isn't even home? Why should I even be here?'_ He started thinking. _'What should I say?'_ Against his better judgment, he rang the doorbell and a servant opened the door and brought him to the living room.

While sitting on the couch, he saw Shizuo walking into the room. _'That must be her eldest brother.'_

Kyoya immediately stood up out of the couch and Shizuo looked at him quizzically. "You must be that Ootori."

Kyoya nodded his head. "And you are Kazuhiko Shizuo I presume?" Shizuo nodded.

"Eh… shouldn't you be on a date with one of my sisters? I can't remember which one really considering all of them enjoy talking about you."

Kyoya smirked. _'Aiko talks about me? I'm surprised.'_ He looked at Shizuo who was looking around the room nonchalantly. "Shizuo-san, I was wondering if Aiko would be at home."

Shizuo stopped looking at the wall and turned to Kyoya. "I think she's in her room. You can check upstairs. The maid will show you to her room." A maid immediately walked to the living room and walked to Kyoya.

Kyoya bowed to Shizuo who continued staring blankly at the wall and quickly followed the maid up the stairs.

**-x-**

"Aiko-sama is in that room to your left." The maid bowed and swiftly made her way down the stairs. Kyoya walked up to the door and knocked on it lightly.

"Come in."

Kyoya opened the door to see Aiko attached to an oxygen tank. "I didn't think it would be you outside my door," Aiko said lightly, "So I didn't see the need to make myself look presentable." She took another shallow breath and winced in pain.

Kyoya quickly went beside her bed and clasped her hand. "What happened to you?" Aiko made a weak smiled and looked him in the eye.

"When I get really angry or really sad, my body gets really weak. After what happened this morning," she paused, "my body got really tired. I actually fainted outside of the classroom." Her eyes fluttered shut.

He looked at her and placed his hand on top of hers. "I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to be like this."

She smiled. "I'm pretty sure it's my fault. I conned you and yet you're apologizing. You have every reason to hate me." She opened her eyes and looked at Kyoya. "Shouldn't you be on a date with my sister? She was talking about it all day."

He rubbed her hand gently and smiled. "I had other plans. Besides, I would rather be here with you than with your sister. Unlike you, she actually makes me eat snails."

**-x-**

Kyoya had been with her for a total of three hours. He left before dinner and quietly snuck out of the Kazuhiko residence under Itsuko's nose.

Aiko smiled when she remembered Kyoya in her room holding her hand or petting her hair. He even watched her as she was napping. He had never left her side.

But she had lied to him again.

In actuality she didn't faint at school. She went home right after the whole incident only to find Itsuko and her father talking in the office.

_**Earlier that day…**_

"_Otou-san?" Aiko saw Itsuko and her father talking in the office together. Itsuko had a sly grin on her face. _

"_Ne, Otou-san, I'm going to go now." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'll see you later!" She walked out of the room staring at Aiko._

_Aiko shivered when she walked to her father. "Otou-san, did you call for me?"_

_He rose out of his chair and slapped Aiko in the face. "How dare you!"_

_Surprised, her hand flew to her cheek. "What did I do?"_

"_You failed me Aiko. You failed to do what I have asked you and you have failed me as being my daughter. People are probably talking about what you've done to shame this family. You're nothing more than a whore—a slut that goes around different men every night. Tell me."_

_Aiko's body started shaking and tears flowed down her face. "Tell you what?"_

"_Tell me exactly just how many men you have slept with." He walked and grasped her forcefully. "Don't you dare lie to me!"_

_Aiko shook her head furiously. "I haven't slept with anyone! I'm telling the truth!" Her body hit the wall and her father's face started getting red. _

"_Don't you lie to me! I am your father!"_

After that, everything else was a blur.

**-x-**

The next day, Aiko slowly got out of bed and walked in front of the mirror. She inspected the bruises and the marks on her body.

She put on her school uniform and put makeup on her bruises. Aiko went downstairs and saw Fuyuko and Itsuko laughing and dancing around the kitchen. She turned and saw Shizuo sleeping on the couch with his school textbooks in a clutter around him.

Aiko silently went into the kitchen, grabbed an apple and walked out the door to see Kyoya waiting for her.

"Kyoya?" She took a bite of her apple and swallowed. "What are you doing here?'

"I'm here to take you to school." Kyoya opened the car door and gestured for her to get into the car. "After you."

Aiko smiled and entered the car.

**-x-**

"So why are you so kind to me all of a sudden? I don't mind it but…" Aiko looked at Kyoya who was carrying both his and her bag to class.

"Just because." He entered the classroom and Aiko followed. "You don't trust me?"

Aiko's face reddened. "Of course I trust you! Why wouldn't I?" She quickly took her bag and went to her seat.

Kyoya went to his seat and Tamaki looked at him. "I see you and Aiko-chan are talking again." Kyoya nodded.

Tamaki put his pencil down. "I know you well. You can't resist the sweet charms of Aiko-chan!" Tamaki stood up and glomped Kyoya who attempted to dodge him. Everyone looked at the two and the girls swooned and sighed.

Tamaki put his arms around Kyoya and whispered in his ear. "You screw with her again; I swear I will never talk to you." Kyoya's eyes widened as Tamaki smiled again and patted the chair, motioning for Kyoya to sit down.

Kyoya sat down on the chair and took out his notebooks. Tamaki stared at the teacher and then started writing on Kyoya's notebook.

_**Do you know how much she cares for you?**_

**-x-**

All day Kyoya kept on staring at Tamaki's note.

'_What could it mean?' _he started thinking about different meanings. He didn't notice Haruhi whistling down the hallway and sitting right next to him.

"Kyoya-sempai?"

Kyoya turned towards her. "Hn."

"You should try to be nicer to Aiko. Tamaki told me what happened."

Kyoya looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

Haruhi took out a lollipop from her pocket, opened it and put it in her mouth. "Apparently her dad thinks that she's some slut or something and hurt her. All because you were dating Aiko-san's sister."

"What?" Kyoya ran his hair through his hands. "I just saw her yesterday. There's no way Tamaki could have seen it. She said that she fainted at school."

Haruhi smiled at him. "That's what she wants you to think. She wants you to think that everything is perfect. The truth is that she's absolutely in love with you." Haruhi stood up and saw Tamaki looking at the two of them.

Haruhi took the lollipop out of her mouth and whispered, "Tamaki-sempai." Kyoya looked up and saw Tamaki turn around and leave.

**-x-**

"How could you not tell me?" The two were walking around the school courtyard. Kyoya stared at Tamaki who put his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Kyoya, it's not my place to tell."

"Yes it is, and then you act all bizarre this morning threatening to kill me."

"I never said anything about that."

"You're usually this… whimsical guy who dreams of dancing with bunny rabbits! Why do you choose to be so serious right now?"

Tamaki laughed at him. "You don't think I care for Ai-chan?"

Kyoya's eyes widened. "You care for her like… that?"

"No, but I still care for her as a friend." Tamaki sighed and sat down on the bench. "Haruhi told me that there was something wrong with her, so I went to find out."

Kyoya took a seat next to Tamaki. "And what did you find?"

"A bloody and bruised Ai-chan with an awful man standing next to her."

"Awful?"

Tamaki sighed again. "You would be surprised how horrible Ai-chan's father is... he's even worse than yours!"

"What do you mean? And how would be able to find out all this information?"

"The maids would tell you anything and everything if you just ask. They know a lot." Tamaki put his hands out of his pockets took out his cell phone. "Here's a picture of her yesterday. I thought you need to know."

Kyoya looked at the phone screen and saw Aiko sprawled out on the ground with bruises and various cuts on her body.

"Oh my god. What happened?"

Tamaki put the phone back in his pocket. "Her dad thought that she was dating and sleeping with many guys. Apparently she was on some sort of 'mission' from her father to seduce me… and then she found you. Her older sister, Itsuko, wanted to date you and she was able to convince you to go on a date with her and ditch Aiko."

"The maids told you all that?" Kyoya took off his glasses and started cleaning them. "I'm surprised." He put his glasses back on and started thinking about the picture of Aiko.

"That's not it. Apparently Itsuko told her father that Aiko was with a whole bunch of guys and made his temper flare. So I guess you and her have more in common that you thought: you both can't stand your own fathers and you don't get along well." Tamaki looked around and saw Aiko sitting down with a book on the other side of the courtyard. "I'm going to delete the picture and we're going to pretend that we never had this conversation. You should go over there and talk to her." He gestured to Aiko sitting down reading.

Kyoya looked at Aiko and saw her scratching her arm and wincing. "I guess I should go over there."

"You guess?" Tamaki started laughing and putting his arms in a hugging gesture, "You should go over there! It is the time for young men like you to fall in love with young women like that beautiful Ai-chan over there!" Tamaki made a kissing face and pretended that his heart was beating fast. "Go and find your one true love!" He stood up and started prancing around the courtyard, laughing like a foolish schoolgirl.

Kyoya looked at Tamaki's dancing and sighed. He stood up and walked towards Aiko.

"Aiko."

Aiko looked up and saw Kyoya. "Ootori-kun, I didn't think we were on first name basis already."

Kyoya took a seat next to Aiko and cleared his throat. "Well, I thought we knew each other enough to…" He looked and saw a dark bruise on her wrist. "Aiko, what's that?" He pointed to the bruise. "What happened?"

Aiko stared down at her wrist and immediately covered it up with her sleeve. "That? That's nothing… I just fell down the stairs the other day." Kyoya took Aiko's wrist and pushed up her sleeve.

"That's nothing?" He stared at the bruises and cuts on her arm.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." She stood up quickly and left.

**-x-**

Aiko ran down the stairs with her fencing bag on her shoulder and passed by the Host Club room. She peered in the room and saw Kyoya and Tamaki talking.

"It appears we have a visitor." Tamaki stood up and opened the door. "Welcome!"

Aiko quietly stepped in and tried to avoid Kyoya's harsh gaze. "I'm sorry, I just saw the door was open and I just took a look." She smiled and looked at the two men. "Am I disturbing anything?"

Kyoya stood up and walked out of the room.

**-x-**

**My apologies for not updating sooner! **

**I've been so busy with exams and I was sick for practically a whole month!**

**Hope everyone has a happy holidays and a wonderful new year! **

**Kudos to my beta for reading and editing this all during her Christmas break. She's amazing. ^^**


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks for all the reviews!**

**I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING. I HAVE A GOOD REASON THIS TIME.**

**So… here's my reason. I'm not making any of this up. **

**I was doing a Chinese lion dance performance, and while I was rehearsing with my partner (I was the butt, for anyone Asian who was wondering…), I fell and hit my head while rolling on the ground. Then during the performance when my partner and I swapped places, I sprained my neck.**

**So I went to the ER a couple of days later and found out that I have a concussion. And my neck is sprained. And then a couple of weeks later while running I fractured my foot.**

**What does this prove? 2011 is NOT MY YEAR. **

**Anyways… Onto the next chapter! Remember to read, enjoy and review! **

**-x-**

_**Last time on **__**To See the World…**_

_**Aiko ran down the stairs with her fencing bag on her shoulder and passed by the Host Club room. She peered in the room and saw Kyoya and Tamaki talking.**_

"_**It appears we have a visitor." Tamaki stood up and opened the door. "Welcome!"**_

_**Aiko quietly stepped in and tried to avoid Kyoya's harsh gaze. "I'm sorry, I just saw the door was open and I just took a look." She smiled and looked at the two men. "Am I disturbing anything?"**_

_**Kyoya stood up and walked out of the room. **_

**-x-**

"Don't mind him, he's in a bad mood today… profits are going down in the Host Club." Tamaki smiled and stood up and gestured for Aiko to sit down. "Sit down, let's have a chat."

Aiko didn't move, a deep scowl on her face. "Stop lying to me. I'm not an idiot. I know that the Host Club is doing fine, so don't make up random things and say that the Host Club isn't doing well."

Tamaki put his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together. He sighed, "What if I told you that Kyoya has feelings for you? What do you think of that?"

"…Are you toying with me?" Aiko stared straight into Tamaki's eyes and waited to see if Tamaki would suddenly burst into laughter and admit he was joking.

"No, I'm not."

She stared at him for a moment longer before turning away dismissively. "Stop lying Tamaki. And here I thought you actually cared about Kyoya." Aiko turned around and walked towards the door.

"Such a harsh accusation. Kyoya is my best friend, we've been friends since junior high." Tamaki gave Aiko a stern glare.

Aiko's eyes widened and her hands suddenly started trembling. "I should leave." She took her bag and swiftly walked to the door.

**-x-**

The phone rang and Aiko rushed to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Hi, this is Rika."

"Oh Watanabe-senpai? What's going on?"

"This weekend we have the performance for the Christmas gala at school. I just wanted to let you know to be there two hours before the gala starts so we can practice and rehearse."

"Today's Friday."

"Oh. That means that rehearsal will be tomorrow at 2:00."

Aiko laughed. "So the concert is tomorrow? Are we even ready for it?"

"Sure, why wouldn't we be?"

Aiko talked on the phone with Rika all night long, laughing away and forgetting everything that Kyoya and Tamaki said. The more she laughed and smiled, the more the pain in her heart and her body went away.

**-x-**

The next morning Aiko woke up and took a shower. After she was finished, she started putting on her clothes and she looked at herself in the mirror. The bruises and the marks were starting to fade, but there was a huge black and blue spot on her stomach and her ribcage. She shook it off, trying not to remember the confrontation with her father the other day, and started putting on her clothes for the gala.

Fuyuko walked into the bathroom as Aiko was leaving. "Oh, I didn't see you were in here! You should really lock the door if you don't want anyone coming in. It's common courtesy."

Aiko looked at Fuyuko's unwavering smile. "Really? Because last time I checked, knocking on the door was common courtesy. And I was just leaving." Aiko walked out of the door and back to her room.

**-x-**

As Aiko was tuning her viola, she heard Fuyuko and Itsuko talking to each other in Itsuko's room.

"I'm going to see Arthur today!" Fuyuko smiled, and started dancing in the room.

Aiko shook her head and continued tuning.

Arthur was a graduate student who came to Japan from England. As a side job, he was a tutor in English and French. Because Fuyuko was dyslectic, she needed a tutor to help her get through her classes, and she went to see Arthur on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

But today was a Saturday.

Aiko thought about it as she applied rosin to her bow. _'Maybe they're going on a date… Oh god, that's a sight to see!'_ Aiko smiled and laughed to herself.

Aiko put her viola and bow back into the case and quietly went downstairs. She grabbed an apple and left the house to meet Rika before the gala.

**-x-**

"I'm so glad you're here Aiko!" Rika ran over to Aiko and hugged her. "I'm actually pretty nervous about today; apparently the Chairman of the Board is going to be here, and Tamaki-san's grandmother!"

Aiko gently smiled after Rika released her. "You shouldn't worry, we're well prepared and we'll be rehearsing soon anyway." She made a wry face and put her hand on Rika's shoulder. "The only thing we should worry about is whether or not Tamaki-san's grandmother will be listening intently to our playing."

Rika laughed and the two walked into the banquet hall. Rika pointed at the stage. "Here's where we'll be performing. We're up first in the program and we'll be playing the first few dances on the list. We might be working the whole time!"

Aiko looked to the side, not listening to Rika ranting about the concert program. Aiko merely nodded and asked simple questions while focusing on Kyoya looking at his clipboard and chatting with the decorators. She painted a mental picture of Kyoya and a clipboard. _'He really looks good with a clipboard in his hand...'_ She mentally berated herself.

How could she be thinking of Kyoya like that? She should be working on avoiding him.

But she couldn't. She couldn't bear not being next to him, not talking to him, not being in the same room with him.

She had to be with him.

Rika poked Aiko's shoulder. "Hey, what are you looking at?" Rika stood side-by-side with Aiko and saw that she was looking at Kyoya.

"Aiko… "

Aiko didn't look at Rika. She stared at Kyoya and hoped that he would look at her back.

"Look at me. Wave at me. Talk to me." She whispered to herself.

**-x-**

When the whole orchestra assembled and the stage was set, they started rehearsing. Whenever they stopped, she scanned the room to find Kyoya.

'_Since when did I make myself so vulnerable?'_ she thought to herself. _'What am I doing with myself?'_

"Violas pick it up! You guys are two whole measures behind!" The viola section stared at Aiko who put down her viola and walked away from the stage. Rika stood up and looked at Aiko with sad eyes. "Aiko!"

Aiko ignored her and ran out of the room.

**-x-**

"Aiko, what was that?"

"Rika, stop bothering me. Just give me ten minutes and I'll be back on the stage rehearsing."

"You're first viola!" Rika waved her arms in anger. "You can't shirk from your responsibilities because of a stupid guy!"

"I'm not shirking!" Aiko snapped. "I'm not shirking from anything!"

"Then just get back on the stage and rehearse!"

"I thought you were my friend!" Aiko stared at Rika, eyes watering dangerously.

"I am!" Rika grabbed Aiko's shoulders and shook them. "You're overreacting!"

Aiko pulled away from her, grabbing her viola and holding it close to her chest. "Go away. I want to be alone right now." She sniffled.

Rika grunted and briskly left the room, her face contorted with irritation.

Aiko turned and saw Kyoya staring straight at her.

**-x-**

Kyoya walked into the room and frowned at Aiko. "What do you think you're doing? You're wasting precious time there on the stage. Your orchestra members are waiting for you to come out and to rehearse. You're just embarrassing yourself in front of all these people. What do you think the Board Members are going to think when they see you crying?"

Aiko hastily straightened and held her viola tightly around her chest. "What I do is none of your business."

Aiko began walking out of the room, but before she left, she pivoted her foot and turned around to face Kyoya. "And don't you ever talk to me like that again! I hope this is the last time I'll ever see you!"

Aiko turned around again and ran back to the stage to continue rehearsing.

**-x-**

Aiko tried to be chatty with her fellow orchestra members as they asked her what was wrong and why she was crying. She had no intention of looking weak in front of other people, namely Kyoya. She kept a straight face and focused only on her viola.

Tamaki rushed into the room, wearing a freshly pressed suit and a light purple tie. He looked around the room and saw Aiko rehearsing with the orchestra. He started jumping and waving vigorously. "Aiko! Aiko-chan!" He sang, waving.

Aiko looked at him and couldn't help but grin. _'What's that idiot doing now? Everyone's staring at him!'_

Tamaki put on his signature smile and put two thumbs up. He shouted to the student conductor, "The orchestra sounds great!"

Aiko looked and saw Kyoya crossing his arms and furrowing his eyebrows. Aiko smiled. She knew that Tamaki would get a small lecture from Kyoya about his frivolous behavior.

Once the orchestra had finished rehearsing, she put her viola away and changed into the dress that she would have to wear for the concert.

Five minutes later, Aiko walked out to the hall and found Kyoya sitting by himself.

Aiko tried to silently walk out of the room until Kyoya turned to look at her. "Aiko, is that you?"

Aiko turned around and saw Kyoya. She nodded and waved. "Hi. I was looking for Rika-senpai."

"I see." Kyoya stood up, holding his clipboard. "Good luck with your performance. You'll do great."

He gave a curt nod and walked out of the room, passing by Aiko.

As soon as Kyoya left the room, Aiko scowled and muttered to herself, "What does he mean 'you'll do great'? Everyone knows that if you wish a performer good luck they're going to have bad luck and mess up at the real performance!"

**-x-**

Aiko went into the back room where she saw Rika talking with a group of violinists. Aiko cleared her throat to get Rika's attention . Rika looked at her and walked over.

Rika put on a sympathetic smile and patted her hand on Aiko's shoulder. "Feeling okay? Sorry for being really harsh to you. But you have to admit that Kyoya is a really stoic person… he's not Suoh-san, Ootori-san doesn't like to put himself out there on the spotlight."

Aiko hesitantly nodded and looked behind her where she saw Tamaki. "Tamaki-san…"

Tamaki walked into the room and gently put his hand on Aiko's other shoulder. "Rika-senpai, mind if I take her away for about twenty minutes or so? She'll be back before the performance starts."

Rika flushed. "O—of course you can. U-uh… don't worry about it," she stuttered. "The performance doesn't start for a while, so, uh, take your time."

Tamaki gave a big smile and then walked to Rika's shoulder and whispered, "You have a crush on Mori-chan! How adorable is that?" Aiko looked back and saw Mori and Honey waving at her and Rika.

Aiko giggled and hugged Rika. "Now's your chance," she whispered to Rika, who was trembling, "Go for it! I have faith in you!"

**-x-**

Tamaki and Aiko were sitting on a bench in the courtyard. Aiko was looking at the clear sky and noticed a gray cloud.

"It's going to rain." Aiko slowly got up from the bench and started looking at the flowers in the courtyard.

"What makes you think it's going to rain?" Tamaki sat on the bench, legs crossed and hands clasped together. "I don't think it's going to rain."

"Wanna bet?" Aiko looked up at the gray could.

"Don't talk in slang. Not in public. You don't want anyone to see you talking like that."

"Ooh. Tamaki-san, you're very formal and terse today. Something wrong? It's very uncharacteristic of you to be like this." Aiko turned around and saw Tamaki sigh. "Tamaki-san, is something wrong?"

"I'm sorry." He relaxed and ran one of his hands through his hair. "I've been thinking too much lately. Family stress and all that stuff, you know?"

Aiko smiled. "You never show that side of you to anyone else. My impression of you has changed. I'm happy that you can trust me."

"And I'm happy I can trust you. But can you trust me?" Tamaki stood up and walked to Aiko. His purple eyes stared at Aiko's. "Can you?"

Aiko immediately took two steps back and blinked. "You should know me Tamaki-san, I don't trust anyone."

"But then how can you have friends? Friendship is about trust; to put trust in one another. Otherwise it's all one-sided." Tamaki walked over to Aiko once more.

Aiko turned around, avoiding Tamaki's adamant gaze. "I can't. It's not in my nature."

"That's the reason why you are such good friends with Kyoya. You both refuse to trust anyone."

Aiko snorted. "Me? Good friends with Kyoya?" She laughed.

"That was the impression that I got. Considering he took you out on a date and bought you new clothes."

Aiko could feel Tamaki gaze piercing straight through her back. "It was common courtesy, nothing more."

There was a pregnant pause between the two. They both stood still, afraid to break the silence, until Aiko turned around, with tears threatening to fall down from her eyes as she spoke,

"After all, who wants to love a girl who's going to die?"

**-x-**

When Aiko arrived at the banquet hall, she saw the Board Members walking around the room and conversing amongst each other. Aiko slipped by and went to the back room where all the other orchestra members were.

A hand reached out and touched Aiko's shoulder. "Aiko, where were you?"

Aiko twitched and looked back and saw Rika's worried expression. "Don't worry, I was with Tamaki-san. We were out in the courtyard."

"What did he do to you?" Rika's hand remained on Aiko shoulder and Rika looked more worried than before.

"Nothing. Why do you ask?" Aiko scanned the room, looking for her viola. She found it in Rika's other hand with Rika's flute.

"You look like you've been crying." Rika gave Aiko her viola. "Don't worry about tuning it, I had someone do it for you." Rika put her mouth by Aiko's ear and whispered, "All you need to do is to get through with this performance. Afterwards we can talk."

Aiko nodded and went over to where the viola section was standing. She tried to forget about all the tears and the pain that she was feeling. She regretted the fact that she befriended the Host Club, especially Kyoya. How could she let her shields down? Why would she do something like that?

**-x-**

Throughout the performance, she felt the audience's eyes piercing her. Their glares were absolutely killing her. As they were performing the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from the Nutcracker, Aiko felt sick to her stomach. The pain—both physical and emotional- from her heart was wearing her down.

What seemed like minutes were hours for Aiko. The pain was too much to bear. Her hand felt heavy and her entire body felt numb.

After the performance was over, the audience gave a standing ovation. As the orchestra members bowed, Aiko quickly followed them and looked up at the audience again. The people's hands and faces became blurred.

As everyone left the stage, Aiko could have sworn she saw a spectacled man looking her way.

**-x-**

"Good job everyone!"

Everyone at the table started cheering and raised their glasses to the center of the table. Aiko followed, going along with the motion.

"We were awesome tonight!" A boy who was in the cello section who sat next her started cheering.

"Yeah…" Aiko mumbled.

When the food was served, everyone quickly started eating. Aiko looked at her food and started moving it around from side to side.

She couldn't eat. The pain was coming back and it was gnawing at her heart. She couldn't explain the pain, but it hurt.

A lot.

Aiko hastily stood up. "Excuse me." She walked away from the table and headed for the door.

In the shadows, a man quickly rose to follow her.

**-x-**

Aiko ran outside to the door and sat on the bench in the courtyard. She looked up and saw the twinkling stars.

She laughed to herself as she remembered the time she and Tatsuya were playing with a telescope that their cousin brought to their house. _'Tatsuya…'_

Her brow furrowed at the thought, her eyes pricking with tears again, _'Tatsuya… why?'_ She quickly wiped her eyes. _'I can't cry...'_ She forced herself to stand up and the pain made her cringe.

"Are you all right?"

Aiko hastily wiped away her tears and turned around to see Kyoya leaning on a tree. "Yeah I'm fine," she mumbled, "just tired."

She got up off the bench and walked back into the building. But before she could enter, she was jolted to a stop by Kyoya grabbing her wrist. "What do you think you're doing? That hurts!" She tried to struggle free.

"No."

Aiko huffed. "And why not? Everyone must be wondering where we are." She felt a raindrop hit her shoulder. "And it's raining," she pointed at the sky and the raindrops falling with her free hand, "we should get inside."

"No."

The raindrops became fat and heavy, and yet the two remained there- Kyoya coolly staring at Aiko and Aiko looking down, avoiding his gaze.

"Why are you doing this to me?" He growled.

There was a brief pause.

"Doing what?"

"_This_."

"What?"

Suddenly he swooped down and kissed her.

He let go of her wrist and her arms slowly wrapped around his neck, pulling the kiss even deeper.

The rain poured down, and the two remained there for what seemed like hours.

**-x-**

**There we go!**

**I feel bad for my poor beta… she reads and edits my chapters (which is nine pages right now…), and yet she has no idea when I email them to her. She just gets the email and edits! So a big shout-out to my awesome beta!**

**So during my concussion I've been trying to write pieces of it together… As of June, I'm "cleared", but if any of my symptoms come back, then it's bye-bye computer (for now)…**

**As always, please read, love and review! I appreciate everyone's reviews (however I would appreciate more than just: "this story is really good" or "Oh noes!"), and I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter! Kyoya and Aiko's relationship has just gone another step farther. Yay! **


	17. Chapter 17

**Thanks everyone for the reviews! I really do appreciate it (I love it when my readers read the little author's notes on the top.)**

**To answer some questions (and add some comments): **

**YES, lion dance is fun, it's actually really cool. Check it out on YouTube so you can see what lion dancing is really like with the professionals.**

**YES, I understand that the word "smirk" is used many times. In fact, in the beginning it's used a lot since I wrote that about 2ish years ago, so my vocabulary isn't as developed as it is now. And also I didn't have a rocking beta to help me with grammatical errors and word choice so yeah. There's my explanation on smirking and vocabulary.**

**YES, I know that the word "Kazuhiko" is a first name. Why should it be a problem? If you want to know why I picked Kazuhiko, it would be because one of my favorite Japanese voice actors is Kazuhiko Inoue (the same guy who voices Kaka-sensei!), and because of him (and the way it sounded), I decided to use it. Plus, isn't it common for Caucasian people to have two first names? Patrick Henry for example? And also, if you go on , there are approximately 23 people in the world that have Kazuhiko as their surname. So to that anonymous reader, you can go away with your snarky comment.**

**And AWWWW! Thanks to everyone who thinks that Aiko and Kyoya really should be together! I was so happy when I saw people's response to Aiko and the KISS! In fact, I was extremely pumped to write about it…**

**Anyways, I will try to update sooner (please forgive me! I spent two days in a fetal position on my couch dying from nausea and migraines), and please be faithful to my story! I am trying my best! I'm happy to see how many readers have kept on with the story (as well as new readers who have stumbled upon my little story), and I hope that you guys will continue to enjoy it! Each chapter always has a little twist on it. And hopefully everyone's keeping track on who's who and what's going on etc…**

**(And thanks for the cyber red velvet cake. It was yummy :3)**

**On to the story! (Sorry for the long blob, but I think it's important to discuss this, especially when I can't respond to the anonymous readers…)**

**-x-**

_**Last time on **__**To See the World**__**…**_

_**She got up off the bench and walked back into the building. But before she could enter, she was jolted to a stop by Kyoya grabbing her wrist. "What do you think you're doing? That hurts!" She tried to struggle free.**_

"_**No."**_

_**Aiko huffed. "And why not? Everyone must be wondering where we are." She felt a raindrop hit her shoulder. "And it's raining," she pointed at the sky and the raindrops falling with her free hand, "we should get inside."**_

"_**No."**_

_**The raindrops became fat and heavy, and yet the two remained there- Kyoya coolly staring at Aiko and Aiko looking down, avoiding his gaze.**_

"_**Why are you doing this to me?" He growled.**_

_**There was a brief pause.**_

"_**Doing what?"**_

"_**This."**_

"_**What?"**_

_**Suddenly he swooped down and kissed her.**_

_**He let go of her wrist and her arms slowly wrapped around his neck, pulling the kiss even deeper. **_

_**The rain poured down, and the two remained there for what seemed like hours.**_

**-x-**

The next day everything was the same. Kyoya got up, dressed, brushed his teeth, and got ready to start his day.

But in the back of his mind, there was a certain something lingering. He couldn't figure out what it was.

It wasn't until noon when he remembered.

'_I kissed Aiko.' _He told himself. _'Last night, at the banquet.'_

He suddenly remembered the sensation of her lips touching his. Kyoya quickly rushed out of his room and called Aiko.

**-x-**

"Hello?"

"Hey, this is Kyoya."

Crap. It was Kyoya. Aiko was panicking. _'Is he going to ask about last night? Oh shit!'_

"Hi, how are you?"

Kyoya paused for a minute. "I'm… good. How are you?"

"I'm…" she paused and sneezed. "I'm all right."

"You're sneezing. Do you have a cold?"

"Yeah," She walked to get a tissue. "I have a slight cold. I don't think it's too bad. Hopefully I'll get a bit better by Monday so I don't miss any school."

Kyoya laughed on the other line. "Where are you?"

"I'm at my apartment. Why?"

**-x-**

After hearing that Aiko had a cold, Kyoya resolved to go by her apartment and spend the day with her. He packed his laptop and some homework into a messenger bag and quietly walked out of his room.

"Good morning, Akito."

The second Ootori brother looked carefully at Kyoya and then pointedly at his messenger bag. "Going somewhere?"

"I'm going to go and visit a friend." Kyoya smiled to himself as he thought about Aiko.

"Oh." Akito and Kyoya heard a door open and saw Yuuichi, the eldest brother, walk out of his bedroom.

"Yuuichi, it's past noon. How could you be tired now?" Akito teased. "Considering Kyoya is up before you. Now that's something new."

Kyoya grimaced at his eldest brother. "I have to go now." He was about to walk down the stairs until Yuuichi started talking.

Yuuichi yawned. "It's not like I was partying all night. Otou-san wanted me to work on some of the financial stuff for the new wing that the company had just opened up. I spent all night working on it. I've been invited to the conference they're having today. Aren't you going to that too Akito?"

Akito nodded. Kyoya stood still and looked at the floor. _'Of course, compared to my brothers, I'm absolutely nothing. Otou-san didn't even invite me to the conference. I should have known.'_ He felt a slight twinge in his chest and he couldn't help but wince.

Akito turned and looked at Kyoya. "You all right?"

Kyoya looked up at Akito and Akito. "Yeah, I'm fine. Have a good time at the meeting." He said dismissively, and then turned down the stairs and went straight to the garage, ignoring his father and sister sitting down at the dining room.

**-x-**

Another twenty-five minutes later, and Kyoya stood in front of Aiko's apartment complex. He took out his phone from his pocket and called Aiko.

"Hello?"

"Aiko, it's me."

"Hi Kyoya. What's up?"

"I'm standing right in front of your apartment complex. Do you think you can let me in?"

"Of course I can!" She chuckled. "Who said I couldn't?"

The door rang and Kyoya went straight up to Aiko's apartment. Aiko's door was open and Kyoya smiled when he saw Aiko sitting on the couch with a large box of tissues.

"Come in. Sorry I can't be more hospitable today." She took another tissue. "I'm actually pretty sick. I don't want to give you my cold."

Kyoya sat down next to Aiko and smiled. "I didn't mean for you to get a cold after yesterday."

"Well…" She threw her tissue in the trash can, and fixed her pillow. "You didn't give me much of a choice considering your tongue was in my mouth the whole time."

He laughed and opened his bag. "I believe that you were more than happy to comply. So it's not totally my fault." He took a white box out of his box. "Here's some cold medicine for you. I picked it up before I got here."

Aiko looked at the box and put it down on the table. "Who said that I needed cold medicine? It's not too bad right now. I bet that this stuff is going to make me fall asleep in an instant."

"You have a cold, and it's going to get worse if you don't take anything for it."

"I'll take it later." She picked up the box again and inspected it. "Just as I thought. It says, 'May Cause Drowsiness'."

Kyoya shrugged and glanced at the television. "You're watching _that_?"

"Yeah, what of it?" She pulled her blanket a bit tighter around her and mumbled, "It's just a drama, and everyone watches it at school."

"I didn't think you watched these… sorts of things. It's a bit sappy, and it's a waste of time."

Aiko reached for another tissue. "You know, when you're sick, you really have nothing to do but to watch sappy dramas and sad movies. Plus, I thought it could help you figure out new tactics that you can use to charm the girls at the host club. I bet that most girls would love you even more if they knew that you kept up with the hottest shows." She blew her nose and threw the tissue in the trash.

The two sat there in silence for a while, and when Aiko looked at Kyoya she was surprised to see that he was intently watching the drama. She giggled and Kyoya turned to look at her. He furrowed his eyebrows, giving her a confused look.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just surprised that you're really watching the drama. Is it actually helping you?"

Kyoya took the television remote and muted it. "Can't a guy watch a drama with the girl he likes?"

Aiko's eyes widened. "So this is why you came over? Because you… _Like_ me?"

"Of course. Considering we did kiss last night." He scoffed.

There was a pause in which Aiko coughed and cleared her throat. "You know," She said tentatively. "I spent most of last night trying to contemplate on the meaning of the kiss. I didn't realize that it would be like this. I honestly thought it was a mistake or something."

Kyoya's eyes widened. "_A mistake_? You consider last night a _mistake_? All we did was kiss!"

"True, it's not like we had sex or anything. It's not like that; I thought_ you_ had made the mistake. You have a host club filled with beautiful girls, choosing me isn't exactly being the best choice."

Kyoya's eyebrows furrowed again. "Why would you say that? You would honestly compare yourself with lovesick preppy girls?"

"I would actually. And considering Haruhi is a girl, I also couldn't help but wonder if you have or have had a crush on her."

"I would never like another man's girlfriend. That's not my style." Kyoya crossed his arms and pursed his lips, trying to find words to say. "Why are you assuming these horrendous things?"

"Because Kyoya, I don't really know you at all." Aiko wrapped the blanket around her tighter and tried to avoid Kyoya's tense stare. "You know so much about me, I know that you hire people to do background checks on me and my family, and plus I tell you a whole bunch about me and my family… but I don't know anything about you. The only things I know is what everyone else knows: the fact that you have two other brothers and you are in a tough competition against them even though you're the underdog. I know about your father and your mother who left. But that's about it. I don't even know your likes and dislikes."

Kyoya was silent for a second, and then, "Well, what would you like to know?"

**-x-**

After a total of two hours, Aiko knew almost everything there was about Kyoya: how he enjoyed German, English and Physics at school, how he enjoyed eating spicy food even though his family didn't prefer it, and that his birthday was November 22nd.

"So, did you really do that to Suoh-san?"

"Yes. It's not one of my proudest moments. But he still wanted to be my friend."

"Even after you practically threw a table into his face…"

"Yes."

Aiko got up from her sitting position and smiled. "Thanks for telling me all this. I feel like… I know you better now…"

"Hn." Kyoya started packing his bag. "I should go now. My brothers…"

"Are at a conference right now, right? Were you invited?"

Kyoya put on his jacket, his jaw set. The pain in his chest started to come back again.

"So I'm guessing… no." Aiko watched Kyoya tense up as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

Kyoya turned around and looked at Aiko. "How did you know about the conference?"

"Well…" she started twiddling her fingers, "My father was making a big commotion about it all week, and my brother is going with him. It's sort of his debut into the whole family business. He's never been to a conference this important before. In fact, I doubt he's even been to a social event."

"Ah. Well I'm going to go home. See you later." He headed for the door, only to have Aiko reach out and grab his wrist in an attempt to stop him.

"Don't leave."

Kyoya turned his head to look at her. "Why?"

"I want to know the truth." Aiko tightened her hold on his wrist. "I want to know your feelings for me."

"I thought that it was pretty clear after last night." Kyoya looked down at his wrist. "Why are you asking me this question? I thought you knew already."

Aiko huffed and began to gnaw on her lip. "Well… you see…" she tried to avoid his eyes, "It wasn't like it was particularly clear that you like me. And last night was… unexpected. I didn't expect you to do something like that, considering your personality and such."

"Personality?"

Aiko let go of his wrist. "Yeah. I mean, considering I came from an all-girls school before transferring to Ouran, this is kind of new for me. I don't know how to respond to this sort of thing."

"What do you mean by personality? You're avoiding the question." He said stiffly.

"Why are you sounding so stern all of a sudden?" She didn't even notice her voice getting higher as she shouted, "how come you hate me so much?"

Kyoya's clenched his fists and started asking, "Hate?" Kyoya straightened his bag and his jacket. "I didn't realize that you thought that I hated you. If you thought that a kiss means hatred, then you must be very confused. I thought that the feeling was mutual. But if you hate me, then obviously we're not on the right track." He walked to the door and, seething slammed it loudly.

Groaning, she shoved a pillow into her face. "Damn it!"

**-x-**

At the Kazuhiko house, Fuyuko and Itsuko were busy watching Kazumi. The two girls sat side-by-side, watching their stepmother eat breakfast.

"She doesn't walk like a pregnant person…"

"Nor does she have any of the symptoms..."

"And how long has the baby been inside her? Seriously!"

They continued whispering to each other, trying to figure out if Kazumi was truly pregnant. Their discussion was interrupted when Kazumi slammed her plate on the table.

"Girls," she said in a motherly tone of voice, "Don't you think you two should be out and about by now? It's Sunday, you both should be out doing things!"

Itsuko made a retching noise, and rolled her eyes. Fuyuko ignored her sister's immature reaction and just smiled and nodded. "We would be leaving, but we want to make sure our baby brother or sister is okay." She put on a concerned tone of voice, "we don't want to leave you alone in this great big house. The last thing we want is for you to get hurt or endanger the baby."

Kazumi sighed. "You don't need to take care of me; I've got the entire staff to help me. Thanks for offering, but you both should go and enjoy the fresh air!"

Fuyuko glanced at Itsuko who nodded. "So before we leave Kazumi-san, we just want to make sure of something…"

Fuyuko produced an envelope from her dress pocket. "I just found this in the mail. And it's not from Otou-san. And there are some peculiar things in here that Otou-san probably wouldn't want to see… or know."

**-x-**

Kyoya came home to an empty house. His sister was out with her husband, his two brothers were at the conference and his father was with them. He sighed as he walked up to his room, dropping his messenger bag to the floor and sitting on a chair.

"_How come you hate me so much?"_

That question kept on bothering him. He kept on repeating it over and over into his head. What could he have done that could possibly have made her say that.

He was infatuated. Ootori Kyoya was officially infatuated. He knew that it was very uncharacteristic of him to feel that way, but yet he couldn't help it.

And he felt absolutely miserable. How could he just launch off into some huge rant without listening to her? It was so uncharacteristic of him to do so. He was supposed to be the 'cool and relaxed' type, not the 'angry and relentless type'.

He quickly went to his messenger bag and took out his laptop. As the laptop booted up, he frowned at his desktop wallpaper: a picture he had taken of Aiko when they were at the park.

He closed his eyes and sighed, trying to contemplate the current situation. Kyoya took out a piece of paper and a pen and started to make a pros and cons list. It was the only way for him to think things out thoroughly.

_**Pros: the possibility of having Kazuhiko Aiko as my girlfriend. **_

_**Cons: possibly losing my claim for the family business, getting too distracted and falling behind in academics, shirking off duties in the Host Club, being intertwined with the Kazuhiko family's drama, losing popularity in school, possibly dishonoring the Ootori name…**_

The list went on. Once he had finished the list, he had counted twenty cons to one pro.

He took the list, crumpled it into a ball and threw to the other side of the room. He had officially decided.

The pros outweigh the cons. Or in this case the _pro_ outweighed the cons.

Kyoya ran his hand through his hair, trying to figure out what to do next.

He called Tamaki.

**-x-**

Thirty-five minutes later, Tamaki showed up in Kyoya's room. Tamaki opened the bedroom door to see no one except for a peculiar crumpled ball of paper hidden in a corner of the room.

'_That's funny; Kyoya is normally a neat freak.'_ He thought to himself, so he walked over and picked up the offending item. As he uncrumpled the ball of paper, he saw that it was a pro/con list.

The instant Tamaki glanced at it, Kyoya walked into the room with an apple in his hand.

"What are you doing? Hiding in your special corner again?"

Tamaki held up the paper and Kyoya instantly groaned. "Throw that in the trash will you? I don't want to see it."

"You know Mommy; this just indicates your love for Ai-chan. And it shows just how much you care about her. "

Kyoya took a bite of his apple, avoiding responding to Tamaki. He knew that Tamaki was right (as he sometimes was about Kyoya's personal life), but refused to admit it.

Tamaki walked over to Kyoya's futon and sat down. He took another look at the list. "So explain to me why you're moping around on a glorious Sunday afternoon?"

"Shouldn't it be the other way around? Aren't I usually playing therapist for you?"

Tamaki quickly jumped out of the chair and brought Kyoya over. "Come on Mommy, we can change it up for once! I'll be the doctor and you'll be the patient."

Kyoya hesitated, but after a long staring competition with Tamaki, he reluctantly agreed. "Okay, I'll bite; however, let me tell you now that there's nothing wrong with me."

Tamaki giggled and started sitting in the spinning chair. "If there was anything wrong with you, then Mommy wouldn't have called." He teased, spinning in his chair.

"You're wasting my time. I thought you might be able to take my mind off of things, but obviously that plan didn't work. And stop spinning the chair; it's giving me a headache." He closed his eyes.

"Okay." Tamaki instantly became serious. "No more fun and games then, huh? You're obviously not in the mood for fun. So what do you want to do? If you want me to leave, then I'll just go back home."

Kyoya opened his eyes and shot up out of the chair. "Wait… aren't you supposed to be at the conference today?"

Tamaki started twiddling his fingers. "Yeah… kind of. But I didn't want to go, considering both my father and my grandmother are there right now. Besides, who else do we know is over there?"

Kyoya snorted. "Practically anyone who's anyone."

"Oh, are you upset over something so stupid? I bet that's why you're so grumpy." Tamaki gestured for Kyoya to sit back down on the reclining chair. "Relax, it's not a big deal, there will be other conferences in the future."

Kyoya ran his fingers through his hair. "Right. More conferences that you can go to, whereas I have to stay at home and do nothing. My brothers and my father go instead. They never want to include me in those sorts of things." He looked at the side table with a bunch of finance magazines and the daily newspaper with a picture of his father.

Tamaki crossed his legs and clasped his hands together. "Well isn't that a good thing? That means there's less for you to do."

Kyoya stood up again. "You don't understand!" He growled, staring at Tamaki. "You don't understand at all! You're the only child. You get everything offered to you on a silver platter: participating at meetings, attending conferences, traveling around to meet business partners, whereas I have to work my ass off for nothing. I singlehandedly saved my father's company, but all the accolades and praise went to Yuuichi and Akito. I never get any credit for anything, and when I accomplish something, everyone tells me that my brothers have already done something like that already. Going to school is a huge waste since all the teachers talk about is Akito and how he was amazing at _everything_ in school and how Yuuichi is _destined to succeed_, and I'm just a pile of _shit_." He noticed his voice got louder and louder, and he eventually became out of breath.

"Now, I wouldn't call you 'a pile of shit', that's a bit extreme." Tamaki smiled. "You're just tired."

"No, no, no! You're just misunderstanding me!" Kyoya ground his teeth in frustration. "Just admit it; you enjoy riling me up, getting me all angry so you can watch me have a mental breakdown."

"I'll admit it, I do. Some part of me actually does… it's very uncharacteristic of me to say something crude like that, but I'm telling the truth. Kyoya, you need to understand that you have a ton of anger inside of you, and when you're like this, you're actually being _yourself_. You don't want to tell yourself that, but it's the truth. You and Aiko are both very similar in that aspect: you both hide your true emotions, and when something doesn't end up going the way you want it to, then you and Aiko have a mental breakdown or get really angry. I've noticed that."

"So what?" Kyoya sat down on the chair and faced him. "You're saying that Aiko and I aren't compatible? That eventually we will split because of our differences and anger?"

"No, not at all, in fact, both of you guys are so compatible that it actually hurts to know you are not together."

**-x-**

**And here it is!**

**It took me a while to write this. Right now in Microsoft, it's 10 whole freaking pages. I put a lot of effort into this! And once again, a big shout out to my beta for reading all of this and editing it… I bet there's a ton of mistakes and grammatical errors that she's going to flip out. **

**Unfortunately I'm not the kind of writer who can sit down and bang out 10 pages at a time. I start off bit by bit, reading back at past chapters, putting together all the info, the plots, the subplots and all the characters I've added and created, and then starting a cohesive beginning, a well-thought out middle and a creative ending. Personally, if the ending doesn't end it nicely for me, then I usually have to edit everything else just to make sure it's okay. So this is probably the second or third draft of the story before I send it to my beta. **

**As always, read, love and review! I look forward to everyone's input! (:**


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